Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: Liverpool, Premier League, Jurgen Klopp, Cardiff City, EFL Championship, Dele Alli
Ryan Smart
Topics: Liverpool, Premier League, Jurgen Klopp, Cardiff City, EFL Championship, Dele Alli
A former Liverpool starlet who cost the club £2 million at the age of 14 has taken an eventful career path since then.
Throughout recent years, Liverpool have often spent big money on youth players or wonderkids, before attempting to ready them for first team football.
Those include Harvey Elliott, Fabio Carvalho and Ben Doak, with the latter signing before he made his senior competitive debut with Celtic.
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Looking further back, the likes of Raheem Sterling - formerly of QPR - were also signed from other youth academies.
One player that hasn't gone on to achieve quite the same success as Sterling, though, is winger Sheyi Ojo, who signed for the Reds from MK Dons at just 14 years of age.
Although they were in separate age groups, Ojo was at MK Dons at the same time as future Tottenham star Dele Alli.
Rated at the time as one of English football's top young talents, Ojo courted the attention of some of Europe's top clubs, including Chelsea, before completing a £2 million move to Liverpool.
He made his way up through the academy ranks before, at 17, he was loaned out to Championship side Wigan in February 2015.
Ojo then impressed during a subsequent loan spell at fellow second tier side Wolves in 2015/16 - so much so that he was recalled by the Reds in January and made 11 appearances in all competitions that season under Jurgen Klopp.
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But after a stop-start 2016/17 campaign following a back fracture, the England youth international was back out on loan again, scoring four goals in 24 games for Fulham.
Subsequent temporary spells away from Anfield at Ligue 1 side Reims, Rangers, Cardiff and Millwall followed, before he signed for Cardiff permanently in the summer of 2022.
Ojo made 34 appearances for the Bluebirds last term, scoring in the 3-1 win over Wigan in the Championship. He also netted during the 2-2 FA Cup third round draw against Leeds at the Cardiff City Stadium.
The 26-year-old was then loaned out to Belgian top division side KV Kortrijk, where he has provided one assist in six Jupiler Pro League appearances.
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Kortrijk are currently bottom of the division, having picked up just five points from their opening 10 games - with the English winger hoping to help them climb out of the bottom three come season's end.
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