Liverpool sold their Drogba 2.0 for a fee worth less than that of Henderson’s.
Over the years, Liverpool’s academy has produced some of the Premier League’s best talents, with players such as Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher and, more recently, Trent Alexander-Arnold all emerging from the youth ranks.
Additionally, they have also managed to harness the talents of other clubs’ players who didn’t quite cut it in their teams or who the Reds saw potential in.
Some examples of these players are Harvey Elliott and Raheem Sterling. The pair each came from Championship teams before seeing their talents developed further with the Merseysiders.
Although the latter chose to leave the club in 2015 in order to join Manchester City for a fee worth a reported £49m, Elliott has become part of the furniture at Anfield.
The 20-year-old recently made his 100th appearance for the Reds against Luton in the Premier League. During that time, he has amassed a total of 15 goal contributions and, at times, has managed to cement himself within Jurgen Klopp’s first team.
This season has been the youngster’s most prolific. It seems that, as he gets older, he is becoming more mature and focused on his game and is managing to find his place within the squad.
Across the 2023/24 campaign, he has managed to score two goals and provide three assists for his teammates, while it is also looking likely that he could be featuring in Liverpool’s upcoming Carabao Cup final due to the recent injuries the Reds have suffered in the centre of the park.
Despite Elliott’s Liverpool career thus far going swimmingly, aside from the odd injury here and there, there have been some Liverpool youngsters who weren’t given the chance to flourish under Klopp’s wing.
An example of one of these fringe figures is that of Taiwo Awoniyi. The current Nottingham Forest striker joined the club in 2015 at just 18 years old and endured many loan spells during his time on Merseyside, prior to exploding elsewhere…
Taiwo Ayoniyi’s Liverpool career
The Nigeria international joined Liverpool for a fee in the region of £400k from Imperial Academy in his home country.
When asked about what it meant to be joining Liverpool, he said the following: “This is the biggest club in the world, and I’m privileged to be here. I’ll try to develop myself very well so that when I come back to Liverpool I’ll be able to add value to the team.”
Despite just joining the club, the then-teenager was instantly loaned out to German side, FSV Frankfurt.
That swift exit came about as the youngster was having problems with regard to acquiring a work permit to play football in the UK. These problems would be set to follow him throughout his Liverpool tenure.
After joining the club, the attacker only managed to appear a total of 14 times for Frankfurt and only amassed a total of two goal contributions during that time.
Then, for his next six seasons at Liverpool, he was loaned out to various clubs across Europe, including spending two seasons at Belgian club, Royal Excel Mouscron. It was during those two seasons in Belgium that the Nigerian had his most prolific time in front of goal – netting 21 times in 47 games.
During the 2020/21 campaign, he spent his time on loan with Bundesliga side, Union Berlin, and made a total of nine goal contributions during his spell with the club.
His performance over the season ended up being enough that the striker managed to finally get a permanent move away from Liverpool after the German side bought him for a fee of £6.5m.
This move occurred just after he was finally granted a work permit to play football in the UK after spending six years of his professional career bouncing around other clubs.
Awoniyi’s permanent transfer away from Liverpool was expected. However, the fact that the striker was sold for less than ageing midfielder Jordan Henderson – who departed for Al Ettifaq on a £12m deal last summer – is something the Reds may live to regret.
At the time, this was Union Berlin’s club-record fee, and it seemed as if it was money well spent, as, despite not having the most prolific of campaigns the season prior, he managed to score a total of 20 goals in all competitions and assist a total of five times during the 2021/22 season.
This sudden burst of form was by far and away the most prolific of the attacker’s career and, to this day, it still stands as his strongest goal-scoring season.
His performances for Union Berlin didn’t, however, go unnoticed. After Forest’s promotion from the Championship in the same season, the club were looking to make some additions to strengthen their side.
