A closer look at Hugo Ekitike, the £79m striker who has made a flying start to Liverpool life
Hugo Ekitike celebrates a goal
Hugo Ekitike has made a splash in Liverpool(Image: Liverpool FC, Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
It wouldn't have taken long for it to have dawned on Hugo Ekitike the size of the club he has joined in Liverpool. The £79m signing from Eintracht Frankfurt was barely 12 hours removed from being confirmed as a Reds player when he was paraded in front of 25,000 supporters last month.
The fact that such a turn-out, for an open training session, came in Hong Kong's Kai Tak Stadium, some 6,000 miles away from his new home on Merseyside, will have been quite the eye-opener for the France Under-21 international.
Ekitike flew into Hong Kong fresh from completing his medical for Liverpool in late July and was introduced to his new team-mates on the pitch of the Kai Tak after they had finished their session in front of supporters on the eve of their pre-season friendly with AC Milan.
Rather than be inhibited by the size and scale of his new employers, however, Ekitike has so far taken it all in his stride, with two expertly taken goals against Crystal Palace in the Community Shield last week and Bournemouth in the Premier League on Friday night.
It's understood the Reds initially made advances over Ekitike in January as Arne Slot and sporting director Richard Hughes began to gently plan how their forward line might look for the campaign ahead.
The Reds head coach spoke to the Frenchman at the end of last season and sold him the vision for how he would fit in when leading the Liverpool line.
There was a belief that Newcastle United's interest in Ekitike, which emerged at the beginning of the summer months, would embolden Frankfurt into something resembling an auction.
The German side have offloaded the likes off Nikola Jovic (£52m, Real Madrid), Randal Kolo Muani (£74m, Paris Saint-Germain) and Omar Marmoush (£59m, Manchester City) for big fees in recent years and saw the situation around Ekitike as being no different.
The Magpies saw an opening bid of £70m rejected before Liverpool swooped quickly last month, having already been armed with all the data, scouting reports and character references needed to pursue the deal.
The Reds' willingness to be proactive earlier in the calendar year allowed them to gain the necessary information to proceed when it was agreed that Ekitike was the right player for the next stage of their evolution up front. Their decisive action also allowed them to fend off late interest from Manchester United, who used director of recruitment Christopher Vivell to sound out Frankfurt's sporting director Markos Krosche.
As a result, United and Newcastle were forced to do battle for Benjamin Sesko at RB Leipzig, with the former eventually coming out on top by sealing a £74m deal for the Slovenia striker.
Of course, with the data-driven model at Anfield, the raw numbers and underlying metrics have had a big say in Liverpool's decision to bring in Ekitike, whose £79m arrival, inclusive of add-ons, sees him become the third most expensive player of all time on Merseyside behind £85m Darwin Nunez and £116m Florian Wirtz.
"No [I didn't] know much at all [about him]," admits Virgil van Dijk of his new colleague. "I'm glad he scored his second in two games. He was also quite tired when he came off, that's also the demand of the Premier League so he has to keep working to try to stay important. I'm glad he has got off the park in the Premier League and hopefully there is more to come.
“I think he settled pretty great in the team in general, we all know the life of a striker – you can score and everything is rainbows and sunshine – and you don't and it's a different world.
“He just has to keep his head down, scoring and making assists, and be impressive in defending and attacking and see what the season brings for him."
Despite starting the season with aplomb as a traditional No.9, Ekitike's power and poise can also be utilised in wider positions, according to some at Liverpool, which could yet be an interesting tactical tweak given the ongoing messaging around Alexander Isak at Newcastle.
"Hugo had an outstanding season with Reims," Thierry Henry recalls. "He came out of nowhere, he’s a local boy, and he took the league by storm. Then he went to Paris Saint-Germain, and that was the year of (Lionel) Messi, Neymar and (Kylian) Mbappe. You're not going to start a lot, so he struggled.
"He went to Germany, and we saw what he did last year. That duo with Marmoush was lethal, they were both unplayable. When Marmoush left, Ekitike struggled a bit, but then he went back to scoring goals.
"I’m not surprised to see what he has done and I’m very happy for him to be back on track, because it's not always easy to get back up when you receive that first slap. He answered the call.
"I remember we were looking at him for France Under-21s, but he wasn’t playing much at the time so it was difficult to take him. Now he’s playing for Liverpool, he has already scored, and what's good with him is that he has both - he's a very good finisher in the box and can also play on the counter because he’s fast. That gives you a lot of options when you’re a coach.
"Arne Slot will figure out what he wants to do with him, but for me he’s a 9. Liverpool already have exactly what they need on the wing. They were waiting to get that guy, they paid a lot to get him. He’s a 9.
"Can he play on the left or right? Yes, he’s versatile because he has speed. But this is what I’m saying, you were never going to ask Alan Shearer to play on the left or right, right? So yes, he’s a 9."
Liverpool remain coiled to act if given encouragement from Newcastle that they are willing to talk over a potential British-record deal for Isak.
For now, though, a waiting game persists as Eddie Howe and his recruitment team look for a potential replacement after losing out on Ekitike, Sesko and, earlier in the window, Liam Delap and Joao Pedro.
Fifteen goals in the Bundesliga is a figure Anfield's key decision makers feel can be improved upon considerably by Ekitike for the years ahead and the early signs are promising.