The ECHO's Liverpool FC correspondent Paul Gorst takes an in-depth look at Hugo Ekitike after he clocked up 15 goals for the season last week
Hugo Ekitike celebrates after scoring Liverpool's second goal during the Premier League match with Newcastle United at Anfield on January 31, 2026
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Having made a near 6,000-mile trip to Hong Kong from London back in July, it would have been the easiest thing in the world for Hugo Ekitike to have checked into the plush Rosewood hotel to sleep off the jet lag.
But rather than head straight to Liverpool's accommodation on the Victoria Dockside, Ekitike, determined to start off on the right foot as the new £79m striker, headed, instead, for the Kai Tak Stadium.
Introduced as a special guest at the end of the open training session, the 25,000 supporters inside the venue were treated to a welcome surprise when the forward was paraded out on the pitch as he met his new colleagues for the first time.
It was a fleeting glimpse into the character of a player who is rapidly growing from a cult hero to a superstar at Anfield and from the minute he stepped off the plane in the Far East, Ekitike has seemingly been determined not to let the opportunity presented to him pass.
Fifteen goals now for the campaign means he is almost certain to become Liverpool's first top scorer not named Mohamed Salah since Philippe Coutinho nine years ago, and the way he has shouldered that burden at a time when fortunes have fluctuated for the legendary Egyptian and fitness problems have plagued Alexander Isak has been hugely encouraging at Anfield.
Perhaps key to his ability to handle the pressure that comes with being a big-money striker at Anfield is his naturally laid-back character. Those who know him speak of an affable, relaxed sort whose sunny disposition rarely changes, regardless of results and performances.
A hug with a member of the canteen staff, caught on the club's TV cameras recently, ended up going viral and provided a brief snapshot in how the No.22 is seen inside the club.
Flamboyant fashion and a curious Instagram account have become the topic of good-natured ribbing behind the scenes for someone who is, unashamedly, simply being themselves at all times.
“I would say [my start has been] good," he said after the 6-0 win over Qarabag last week. "Obviously I could do better, I could do worse. I'm pretty happy. The most important thing was to set up outside of the pitch with my team-mates, that's a big thing.
"Everything I do outside with my team-mates, training, I think I've settled in well and that helps me to perform so I would say I'm happy but I'm hungry for more and I expect more from myself so I have to keep working."
Having joined the club in the same summer as Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong, Ekitike - who has become a fully-fledged France international as a Liverpool player - has struck up a close bond with both former Bayer Leverkusen men, while Les Bleus colleague Ibrahima Konate, three years his senior, has become an important figure in reinforcing the lengths a player must go to to fulfil their potential.
"Once, I gave him a bit of a hard time, but it was funny," Konate told Canal+ in November. "We had to go to the gym after one of the training sessions, and the intensity we put into training, it's true, it's very tough.
"And he was tired. I went to see him and I said: 'Come on, let's go to the gym now.' And he said to me, 'I'm knocked out, I'm dead.'
"Actually, we don't have to go to the gym, but it's better to go, because we're kind of called up. I looked at him and for two seconds, I didn't speak to him. And I said to him: 'Do you want to go to the French national team or not?'
"A minute later, he was in the gym. The anecdote is a bit funny, but afterwards he quickly understood how it worked. In terms of work, he is someone who is very diligent and who will progress, I have no doubt about that."
Liverpool initially touched base with Ekitike's agent, Karl Mwalako Buchmann, around January time with Arne Slot speaking to the striker at the end of the season and while the perception has always been that the Reds stole a march on Newcastle in the transfer window, it's always been insisted in Anfield circles that the club only swooped after contact had been established over the conditions of a deal some months prior.
Speaking before the Newcastle game, Slot said: "I spoke to him and that is my part of the deal and what is exactly done in that whole process of negotiating and who is interested and who is not, at that moment, my full focus was at the team, for one of the reasons we are all aware of, and second of all, it was pre-season and we had to prepare in the best possible way.
"So I don’t know exactly what is going on in all these negotiations. The only thing I knew is I spoke to Hugo quite early in the window, trying to convince him to come to us and then Richard Hughes did his job and made it happen and the ownership of course and Michael Edwards and all of them together made it work that he has come to our club and we are really happy with that and I don’t know how all the negotiations have gone."
A burgeoning partnership with Wirtz has started to develop in recent months, with the pair becoming the youngest Reds' duo (at 23 and 22) to combine for six Premier League goals. It's the most by any combination in the division this term, one more than Erling Haaland and Jeremy Doku at Manchester City.
"It's just nice to play with players like Hugo, he is a great guy with a great personality," says Wirtz. "He is a great friend of mine already because we knew each other already from the Bundesliga, we exchanged shirts already when he was at Frankfurt and he is a fantastic player.
"He even surprised me when I saw him here, playing and training, because I didn't know he was that good. He is so much fun to play with because he knows how you move on the pitch, how you link up with each other and it is just nice to play with him."
“I think Ekitike is a better player than Fernando Torres,” Jamie Carragher claimed this week when his partnership with Wirtz was being compared to Torres's with Steven Gerrard.
"He may not get as many goals, but Torres was made by Gerrard at Liverpool. Ekitike won't rely on Wirtz as much, but, if the combination keeps going, he could get the goals Torres got."
If footballers are naturally superstitious sorts then there is one routine which Ekitike has made a trademark since his arrival on Merseyside. The Reims-born frontman can be seen taking in the sights and sounds of each stadium Liverpool visit upon their arrival alongside quick FaceTime calls to family and friends to inform of his location. It's a pre-match ritual that is seemingly paying dividends.
The mining of the data, when Ekitike was being assessed as a potential candidate for the summer shortlist, revealed that only Haaland and Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe to have had better potential at the same age in the sort of metrics Liverpool were looking at.
It's quite the company to keep and while the mere mention of two of the greatest players of their generation might make skeptics scoff, it is Liverpool's belief that they have a player with an enormous ceiling who can, in time, blossom into one of the world's best frontmen.
Unsurprisingly, those behind the scenes at Anfield have been impressed with how he has adapted to life at a club where the demands are so intense but the next step is remaining consistent and developing the fitness needed to perform for 90 minutes three times a week in a league as unforgiving and intense as the Premier League.
With Isak, who is now sidelined with a broken leg, initially struggling to get up to 100% due to the lack of a pre-season schedule while his acrimonious departure from Newcastle United played out over the summer, Ekitike has more often than not led the line in an orthodox No.9 role. He is viewed at the club, though, as someone who can also operate in more withdrawn and wider roles as times goes on.
That presents the mouth-watering prospect of eventually dovetailing with Isak, who became the most expensive footballer in British history on September 1 at £125m.
Ekitike's superlative debut campaign has led to some questioning over the decision to sign Isak, but there is room at Anfield for both, particularly in the post-Salah era, whenever that may be.
Until then, though, it is Ekitike who has taken the spotlight of centre stage. It's a position he looks more than comfortable in right now.