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Liverpool Echo

Sport

Theo Squires

Liverpool transfer flop hits new career low nine years after Lionel Messi comparison

Liverpool Lazar Markovic Lionel Messi Jurgen Klopp Benfica Avram Grant Partizan Anderlecht EPL Hull City

“I can say that apart from Ronaldo and Messi, Markovic is one of the best talents I’ve ever seen at 19 years of age.”

When Lazar Markovic left Partizan Belgrade for Benfica back in 2013, he departed with the highest of praises from his former manager, Avram Grant.

“It was excellent playing with this kid for six months,” the Israeli said. “He has such massive potential that if he changed his attitude in training he could be one of Europe’s best players in his position. But he’s young, he’ll mature, and then nobody will be able to stop him.”

Having won back-to-back league titles with Partizan, the Serbia international enjoyed a remarkable first season in Portugal as he helped Benfica win a domestic treble, with his form earning him a £20m move to Liverpool in the summer of 2014.

“I watched every game [of Liverpool ’s last season, from Portugal] and they played absolutely superb,” he said at the time. “It is a shame they did not win the title – but I hope we will win it this season. I went to Partizan and won the title. I went to Benfica and won the title. Now I have joined Liverpool and want to win the title, 100 per cent.”

Alas, Markovic and the Reds would fall miserably short of achieving the Serbian’s aim, with his season at Benfica as good as it got for the winger and with his career going downhill ever since.

Unfortunately for Liverpool, he would never live up to Grant’s praise and will be remembered as one of their very worst Premier League signings. He was discarded by the Reds after just one season, though a poor relationship with Brendan Rodgers didn’t help as opportunities were limited and he often found himself played out of position.

Limited to 34 appearances in all competitions in a disappointing first year for the Reds, he would start 23 games and feature just 19 times in the Premier League as he struggled to live up to expectations. Particular lowlights included being sent off against Basel only 15 minutes after coming on as Liverpool suffered a Champions League group-stage exit and being withdrawn at half-time at Wembley in an FA Cup semi-final defeat to Aston Villa as his manager tried to play the winger as a right wing-back.

“I didn’t have a good relationship with the coach,” Markovic would later admit to Portuguese newspaper A Bola. “That was a problem. I played in many positions but didn’t play in mine.”

Finishing the season with late substitute appearances against Hull City and Queens Park Rangers, Markovic was an unused substitute as Liverpool embarrassingly ended the campaign with a 6-1 loss away at Stoke City and, despite a new manager soon arriving in Jurgen Klopp, he never played a competitive game for the club again.

A succession of disappointing loans would follow at Fenerbache, Sporting Lisbon (which was terminated halfway through the season, Hull City (where he suffered relegation) and Anderlecht. Yet his fitness and condition were so poor upon his arrival in Brussels that it would take him six weeks to get up to standard.

He played just eight times before returning to Anfield as a result, but after scoring his first, and only, goal for the club, took aim at Liverpool for their treatment of him and for continuing to price him out of a permanent exit.

“It’s to show that I’m still the same player, to show the people at Liverpool that they can’t treat me that way,” he fumed after scoring his only goal for Anderlecht. “Yes, it’s okay to take it personally when you are not let go because they’re asking for an unrealistic transfer amount.”

Featuring for Liverpool in pre-season 2018, even scoring against Blackburn Rovers, he remained frozen out the following campaign before signing for Fulham on a free transfer on January transfer deadline day in 2019 after being recommended by compatriot Aleksandar Mitrovic. Yet he would make just one appearance for the Cottagers, who suffered relegation that year, coming on as a half-time substitute against West Ham United in February before being released at the end of that season while his former Reds team-mates lifted the Champions League.

Re-signing for Partizan Belgrade in September 2019, Markovic would ultimately fare better back at his first club as he scored 21 goals in 89 appearances after signing a three-year contract. However, after a poor third season where he failed to score a league goal, he now finds himself as a free agent after new head coach Ilija Stolica ultimately deemed the Serbian surplus to requirements following his appointment last month.

Now 28, eight years on from his £20m move from Benfica to Liverpool, Markovic should be enjoying his peak years as a footballer. Instead, he is a free agent after being turned away by his boyhood club. With the Reds having struggled for years to find a new home for the winger, it remains to be seen how long he will stay out of contract for.

And in a further indictment of his failing fortunes over the past decade, his market value has never been lower. Transfermarkt currently value Markovic at £1.54m, with his price going down £600k following his flailing fortunes last season. That price is his lowest value since 2011, two years before he left Partizan for Portugal for £8.6m and three years before his infamous £20m move to Liverpool.

Signed as part of a £117m spending spree as the Reds blew through the £65m they received from Barcelona for Luis Suarez, Markovic’s arrival, along with the likes of Mario Balotelli that year, was a particular low-point in the club’s transfer history. But fortunately it is also something they learned from and used to transform their fortunes, under the watchful eye of former sporting director Michael Edwards, with Liverpool’s transfer record these days the polar-opposite from those dismal days in the summer of 2014, with Jurgen Klopp ’s side winning every major honour going on their way to being crowned champions of England, Europe and the world.

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