It’s 31st August 2023. As the summer mercato draws to a close, Hugo Ekitike is waiting.
Fresh from a timid first season in Paris, complicated by the presence of star-studded competition (in the shape of Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Neymar), the young striker doesn’t know whether he will be given the opportunity to play in a second.
Truth be told, it seems unlikely.
Despite his exemplary attitude and professionalism, and the high regard in which he is held by Luis Enrique’s staff, his future no longer appears to be linked with the Parisian club. His management’s desire to get rid of him to make room for the future arrival of Randal Kolo Muani, then a player at Eintracht Frankfurt, is not misleading.
But Ekitike has no intention of being used as a bargaining chip. At least, not at the risk of his own personal interests. Aware of his situation, he remains open to a move.
But neither Crystal Palace nor West Ham, who had both announced their interest, managed to finalise the deal. The transfer window closed and all the parties involved passed the quid to explain the failure of this announced transfer.
At the time, Ekitike may not yet have known it, but the eight minutes he had played against Lorient two weeks earlier, on the opening day of the league, would be the last of his adventure with the Rouge et Bleu.
For the 21-year-old, the die is cast. Left on the sidelines for the next five months, he continued to work. In silence and in his corner. And as the winter transfer window finally opened, the forward realised that this was his chance to make a fresh start. However, the weeks passed without any real movement.
And as the 31st January deadline approached, history seemed to be repeating itself. But that was without counting on the return of Eintracht Frankfurt, already interested six months earlier, who managed to convince both the player and PSG of the merits of their offer.
A loan deal with an option to buy synonymous with liberation for a player who had been deprived of official competition for interminable weeks. Asked a few days later to reflect on his experience in Paris, Ekitike preferred to focus on the positive rather than the fatalistic.
“It didn’t work out in Paris, but that’s part of a career, it’s part of choices, it’s part of certain things that happen,” he relativised to the press. “I’m taking my time in Paris in a good way. I never take things as a defeat. For me, it was a lesson, an apprenticeship alongside great players.”
This “apprenticeship” would soon give Ekitike the opportunity to put it to good use. Just a few days later, the time had come for him to find his feet in his new environment. Yet his adjustment was far from easy. His run of nine games without scoring to begin his German adventure bears witness to this. But the Eagles’ management never gave up on him, certain of their young striker’s talent.
So when the Frenchman finally found the back of the net against Augsburg on 19th April, everyone felt a welcome relief. Starting with Ekitike himself, whose last goal had come on the 11th January 2023. A strike that also served as a wake-up call, as he finished the season on a high, scoring four goals and providing one assist in the last five Bundesliga fixtures.
Having been definitively transferred to Germany in July 2024, Ekitike took full advantage of his summer preparations to get back into top form. And the embers of a talent that the German public had been able to discover a few weeks earlier turned into a real blazing fire in the weeks that followed.
Alongside Omar Marmoush, whom he had orphaned in the winter after the Egyptian left for Manchester City, the forward shone. Not just because of his flattering statistics (he scored 22 goals and provided 12 assists in all competitions during the 2024-25 season), but also because of his distinctive — and effective — style of play.
“I don’t play football to be just another player.”
Hugo Ekitike in an interview for L’Équipe
Standing at over 1.90m (1.91m, to be more precise), Ekitike proved himself to be as gifted on the ball as he was in the air, capable of creating and making chances from almost nothing.
According to FBref, last season he was one of the Bundesliga’s best forwards in terms of carrying the ball into the opposition half (74 metres), successful take-ons (1.83), key passes (1.55) and shots attempted (4) per 90 minutes. From Bayern Munich to Bochum, via Borussia Dortmund, many of his opponents can testify to the danger posed by the former Reims man.
There’s still room for perfection, of course, and the areas for improvement are clear — we could in particular highlight a need to boost efficiency. But the potential of Ekitike, who will become the 18th Frenchman to pull on a Reds shirt, leaves no doubt as to the heights he seems capable of climbing. Liverpool, who have just invested more than £75m to secure his services, are certainly convinced of this.
After all, you don’t become the third most expensive player at a club of the Reds’ stature for no reason.
