Hugo Ekitiké says he relishes Liverpool pressure | OneFootball

Hugo Ekitiké (23) has said that he relishes the pressure of playing for Liverpool and has equally embraced the pressure that his €95m price tag brings.

At a young age, Ekitiké made the step from boyhood club Stade de Reims to Paris Saint-Germain. With PSG’s forward line containing Kylian Mbappé, Lionel Messi, and Neymar Jr. at the time, it was too big a step.

The France youth international struggled for minutes, and when he did play, he struggled to show the best version of himself. His time at PSG then ended on a bitter note. Les Parisiens attempted to use Ekitiké as a makeweight in the deal to bring Randal Kolo Muani from Eintracht Frankfurt to the Parc des Princes. The former refused to be a makeweight in the hastily arranged deal. Whilst Kolo Muani did eventually join, Ekitiké’s refusal to make the opposite move soured the relationship.

He remained sidelined in the coming months before then making the move to Frankfurt, firstly on loan and then on a permanent deal. This summer, he got another big move, joining Liverpool in a €95m deal. This time, he has shown himself capable of making the step to a bigger club. He has started life at Anfield brightly, netting twice in three Premier League games.

The Frenchman is embracing the pressure of playing for the Premier League champions. “My life has changed,” he admitted, speaking ahead of France’s match against Iceland on Tuesday. “It is a big transfer. I am watched 1000 times more than before, but I take it as a positive. It is the position I wanted to be in. When you have these kinds of standards, you have to show that you deserve your place here and continue to perform. It is a position that I like to be in, and I want to keep it,” he added.

GFFN | Luke Entwistle