Former Liverpool and Dutch midfielder, Georginio Wijnaldum has joined the group of players who have sharply declined after leaving Anfield.
One of the Liverpool greats, who Inspired one of the famous comebacks against Barcelona at Anfield, is now playing in League One standard. Gini left for PSG when his Liverpool contract ended in 2021.
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Wijnaldum follows the declining career path of other Liverpool icons
Gini followed the likes of Philippe Coutinho and Sadio Mane who were also Anfield icons. However, their post-Liverpool career has been anything but impressive.
Coutinho got his desired move to Barcelona in January 2018. But within 18 months of joining the Catalan giants, he was loaned out to Bayern Munich.
Although he went on to win the treble in Germany, Bayern weren’t interested in making a permanent move for the Brazilian.
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Eventually, he was loaned out again and returned to the Premier League. This time with Aston Villa, under his former teammate Steven Gerrard. He was impressive for the Villans.
Hence, the move was eventually made permanent for £19 million. It was a huge decline from what Barcelona had paid Liverpool, two and a half years ago of around £142m.
However, he his brilliant form in the Midlands quickly faded and he fell down the pecking order. After only 18 months, he joined Qatari side Al-Duhail and at only 31, he is away from European football, at least for now.
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This very well means that Liverpool might have seen the last of the Brazilian at the very top level.
The similar goes out to Sadio Mane who was transferred to Bayern Munich in 2022 for just £35 million.
However, he managed to score only seven league goals the whole season for the German giants. It was hugely disappointing for Bayern who had seen the Senegalese as a replacement for Robert Lewandowski.
Moreover, a dressing room bust-up with teammate Leroy Sane did not help his cause. Later, he left for the Saudi Pro League club Al-Nassr at the end of the campaign.
Another player who has continued this trend of sharp post-Liverpool downfalls is Georginio Wijnaldum.
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Gini joined one of the top teams in Europe, PSG, when his contract expired in 2021. However, this move did not go as planned as he struggled to nail down a place in the starting XI.
He was named on the bench for 16 of the club’s 38 league matches.
This underwhelming spell led to a loan move to Roma in 2022/23. But even that backfired for different reasons as a broken leg limited him to just 769 Serie A minutes.
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Moreover, when he returned to Paris, he was long forgotten and was training with the club’s unwanted players.
This group included the likes of Julian Draxler, Leandro Paredes, and Kylian Mbappe, who then had a contract standoff.
Later, he was offloaded to Saudi Arabia as he reunited with former Liverpool teammate Jordan Henderson.
He joined Al-Ettifaq, which is managed by Steven Gerrard and quite clearly, is a step down for the UCL winner.
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As per Opta ranking, the Saudi Club ranks 442 worldwide, which is below League One outfit Blackpool.
Meanwhile, as Liverpool struggled last season, mainly in the midfield section, there were talks about how the Dutchman could have helped in the middle of the park.
Now, however, after the new recruits and a flurry of new number eights, it is possible that it is the other way round. Maybe Wijnaldum might be regretting leaving Anfield more than Liverpool regrets losing him.
I’m a football enthusiast and an avid writer and someone who lives by the Bill Shankly quote, on a day to day basis.
