Nigerian winger Chidera Ejuke has spoken about how he previously had the chance to train with Liverpool and started dreaming about getting the chance to complete a transfer to the club.
The 25-year-old, now of CSKA Moscow but on loan to Royal Antwerp, has recalled the time he had a trial with Liverpool, and how disappointed he felt when the move to Anfield ultimately didn’t work out.
A report from Het Nieuwsblad, as cited and translated by Sport Witness, has detailed how Manchester City were also interested in Ejuke when he was a youngster, but Liverpool showed the strongest interest as they invited him to the club for a period on trial.
Ejuke ended up getting his move to Europe by joining Valerenga back in 2017, but it’s interesting to think how things might have worked out for him if he’d been given the chance at Liverpool.
It’s clear the rejection hit him hard, which is the side of football we sometimes don’t see or get to hear about properly.
“I was allowed to train with the youth [team] for a week. I started dreaming, I could see myself playing in the first team, but things didn’t go as expected,” he told Het Nieuwsblad, as translated by Sport Witness.
“I wasn’t good enough, it turned out, and I had to start all over again. That was quite difficult, because you realise that you don’t get opportunities like that often. I felt like I had disappointed my family.”
Thankfully it seems Ejuke is still making a decent career for himself in Europe, while he also has three caps for the senior Nigerian national team.