On 29 July 2014 Liverpool announced the signing of Divock Okoth Origi (born 18 April 1995 in Ostend, Belgium) from Lille for a reported £10 million on a five-year contract. The Belgian striker spent one more season on loan in France and arrived at Anfield in 2015. He stayed for seven seasons, with 175 appearances and 41 goals, and scored some of the decisive goals of the club's 2019 Champions League win.
Background and youth career
Origi grew up in Houthalen-Oost, in the province of Limburg. His father, Mike Origi, was a Kenya international who played for KV Oostende and Genk. His uncle Austin Oduor Origi played for Gor Mahia, and his cousin Arnold Origi kept goal for Kenya. The family is of Luo heritage. Divock spent nine years in Genk's academy, from 2001 to 2010. In May 2010 he turned down Manchester United and joined Lille's academy instead.
Lille and the 2014 World Cup
He made his competitive debut for Lille's first team in February 2013, coming off the bench against Troyes and scoring the equaliser. In 2013-14 he played 35 matches and scored 6 goals, 5 of them in 30 Ligue 1 appearances. That summer he was named in Belgium's squad for the 2014 World Cup. On 22 June, against Russia, he came on as a substitute and scored the only goal of the game in the 88th minute. It made him Belgium's youngest scorer at a World Cup finals and the first player of Kenyan descent to score at the tournament. After the move to Liverpool he stayed at Lille on loan for 2014-15, scoring 8 goals in 33 league games, including a hat-trick against Rennes in March 2015.
Seven seasons at Anfield
His competitive Liverpool debut came on 12 September 2015 against Manchester United. That season he scored a hat-trick against Southampton in the League Cup, a competition in which Liverpool reached the final, as they also did in the Europa League. On 20 April 2016 he suffered a serious ankle injury from a tackle by Everton's Ramiro Funes Mori, who was sent off. In 2017-18 he was loaned to Wolfsburg, scoring 7 goals in 36 games, 6 of them in 31 Bundesliga matches.
Back at Liverpool, he scored the goals he is best remembered for. On 2 December 2018 his 96th-minute header won the Merseyside derby 1-0. On 7 May 2019 he scored twice in the 4-0 win over Barcelona in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final, overturning a 3-0 first-leg defeat. On 1 June 2019, in Madrid, he scored the second goal in the 2-0 Champions League final win over Tottenham. In June 2022 the club announced he would leave when his contract expired; he left with 22 goals in 107 Premier League appearances.
AC Milan and Nottingham Forest
On 5 July 2022 he signed a four-year contract with AC Milan. In the 2022-23 Serie A season he made 27 appearances and scored twice. On 1 September 2023 he joined Nottingham Forest on a season-long loan with an option to buy. He played 20 Premier League games without scoring, and his only Forest goal came in the FA Cup on 7 February 2024, in a 1-1 draw with Bristol City. In July 2024 he returned to Milan, where he was assigned to the reserve side, Milan Futuro. He never played another competitive match, and on 22 December 2025 he terminated his contract with the club.
Belgium national team
Origi represented Belgium at every youth level from under-15 to under-21, with 33 caps and 11 goals in total, 10 of them for the under-19s. He made his senior debut in 2014 and won 32 caps, scoring 3 goals, up to 2022. Besides the World Cup goal against Russia, he scored against Andorra in a 6-0 Euro 2016 qualifying win in October 2014 and against Iceland in a 3-1 friendly win the following month. He was part of the squad at Euro 2016 and was left out of the 2018 World Cup squad.
Honours and retirement
With Liverpool he won the 2018-19 Champions League, the 2019 UEFA Super Cup, the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup, the 2019-20 Premier League, and the FA Cup and League Cup in 2021-22. Across his club career he made 369 appearances and scored 69 goals. On 8 June 2026 he announced his retirement from professional football on social media.
