€4m-a-Year and Nowhere to Be Found: The Shocking Story of Divock Origi at Milan

Divock Origi

€4m-a-Year and Nowhere to Be Found: The Shocking Story of Divock Origi at Milan

Festus Chuma 09:36 - 30.04.2025

Divock Origi remains under contract at AC Milan despite vanishing from the squad, raising questions about his future and role.

Often when a player is out of form, a club hopes for a revival — but Divock Origi’s case has taken a different route entirely.

AC Milan continues to foot the bill for a player who has essentially disappeared from the professional scene.

Divock Origi, once a Champions League hero at Liverpool, is still under contract with the Rossoneri and is being paid €4 million net per season, despite having no place in the club’s plans and not being seen at the training ground in months.

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The 29-year-old Belgian striker arrived at Milan in the summer of 2022 with expectations of revitalizing his career and becoming a key figure in the post-Ibrahimovic attack.

However, what followed has been a drastic fall from grace. With just two goals in 1,187 minutes of game time and a disappointing loan spell at Nottingham Forest in the Premier League, Origi has now become Milan’s highest-profile absentee.

“In the meantime, it must be said that there has been no trace of him. The last time a Milan figure with rank on his shoulders mentioned him was at the beginning of July. It was Zlatan Ibrahimovic, on the day of Paulo Fonseca’s presentation,” reported Football Italia.

Ibrahimovic’s blunt assessment left little room for interpretation: “Origi and Ballo-Touré will play for Milan Futuro because they are not part of the first team project.”

Since then, Fodé Ballo-Touré has made the occasional appearance with the second team, albeit with lackluster results, while Origi has completely vanished.

He has not been seen at Milanello, the club’s training complex, and has not featured in a match since April 21, 2023, when he came off the bench against Everton during his Nottingham Forest stint.

Social media offers no reassurance either. His last Instagram post was from Tokyo on July 3, 2024, while his X (formerly Twitter) account has been dormant since September 2023.

Origi was spotted recently in Florence, working privately with a personal trainer at the Porta Romana sports center, seemingly in an effort to maintain some physical form.

But without match fitness or a clear route back into professional football, his future looks uncertain.

Milan’s ideal scenario would involve a club stepping in to take him off their hands – with no transfer fee and possibly even another loan arrangement.

However, his €4m net salary (around €5.2m gross) remains a massive obstacle for most suitors. Unless Origi himself agrees to lower his financial demands, the options become increasingly limited.

One potential outcome is a contract termination, with a severance deal that would still cost Milan less than paying out the full remaining term.

Another, albeit improbable, route would be for the incoming coach to attempt a redemption arc for Origi – but this, as the report put it, “seems like the plot of a science fiction movie.”