“I won the Champions League with Liverpool, but now I’m banned at my new club”

Teams are more than just the 11 players who step out on the field at the beginning of each game. It’s also about people who may spend most of their time looking from the sidelines, waiting for their chance to shine when it comes. Some players, like Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Jermaine Defoe, made a living by making big plays off the bench.

Divock Origi, a former striker for Liverpool, is another name that is often used for this job. Even though the 29-year-old never started many games for the Reds, he never let that set him back in his career. Okay, so maybe he did, but not in a bad way. In fact, some of the best times of his career happened when Jürgen Klopp put him on the field when his team needed a goal to win. He scored the game-winning goal in extra time in the Merseyside Derby against Everton, and no one will soon forget how inspiring he was in the 2019 Champions League semi-final and final.

All of these things made Origi more valuable at Anfield. He decided to bet on himself, though, and left the club on a free transfer in 2022 to play more games at another European giant, AC Milan. Even though it’s only been two years, things could not be worse for the 32-times capped international.