Where are they now? Liverpool’s 13 wonderkids from Football Manager 2015

It’s been a whole decade since Football Manager 2015 was released, prompting us to check on that edition’s 13 Liverpool wonderkids to see where they are these days.

Cast your mind to November 2014. Brendan Rodgers was struggling to fill the Luis Suarez-shaped hole in his squad as the Reds went from title challengers to something of an inconsistent rabble. But they did have some young talent emerging to offer hope for brighter days ahead.

We’ve gone ahead and scrolled back through the FMScout archives, picked out Liverpool’s 13 wonderkids from Football Manager 15 and checked in on where they’re at 10 years later.

Lloyd Jones

Liverpool signed Jones from his hometown club Plymouth Argyle for a reported £150,000 fee back in 2011, back when he was just 15 years old.

The defender continued his development at Melwood and eventually progressed to become a regular in the Under-21s, but he never made an appearance for the first team.

In January 2018, after four loans away, Luton Town signed the highly-rated youngster for an undisclosed fee back when they were in League One. He was immediately loaned back out to Plymouth.

Jones never quite established himself for the Hatters and it wasn’t until he joined Northampton in 2020 that he found regular appearances. Nowadays the 29-year-old is turning out for Charlton Athletic, an experienced Football League journeyman with no fewer than 10 different clubs on his CV.

Ryan McLaughlin

A similar story – a cheap academy pick-up, zero first-team appearances, two so-so loans away and eventually a permanent move away to the Football League – in McLaughlin’s case, League One Oldham Athletic in 2016.

The right-back, who made a handful of appearances for Northern Ireland, went on to represent four different clubs in the third tier but has been turning out for League Of Ireland outfit St. Patrick’s Athletic since last year.

Emre Can

It feels weird that Can was ever considered a wonderkid. He kind of feels like he’s been 30 for his entire career, such is his relatively unflashy playing style and demeanour.

Liverpool had signed the midfielder in 2014 after an eye-catching breakthrough season at Bayer Leverkusen and he immediately came in to play a fairly prominent role under Rodgers, subsequently a mainstay of the early Klopp years.

The Germany international featured in Liverpool’s run to the Champions League final in 2018 but left on a free to Juventus after seeing out his contract.

The move to Italy never quite worked out and he’s now into sixth season at Borussia Dortmund, where he’s now club captain.

Now actually 30, he caught the eye in their surprise run to the Champions League final last term, but featured on the losing side once again. He’s now taking pelters from Dortmund fans and the German press amid their shakey start under fellow Liverpool old boy Nuri Sahin.

Jordan Rossiter

Born and bred in Liverpool, Rossiter joined the Reds’ academy as a young bairn and progressed to become their Academy Player of the Season in 2013-14.

Having caught the eye in the youth ranks, he went on to make a grand total of five appearances (one in the Premier League) and scored one goal for his boyhood Reds with a memorable long-range effort in a League Cup penalty shootout win over Middlesbrough.

Rossiter moved to Rangers in 2016 in search of more regular playing opportunities, but he struggled with injuries, didn’t feature often and never got a chance under Steve Gerrard, who he’d been compared to his academy days.

Nowadays he’s turning out for League One side Shrewsbury Town, having moved there from Bristol Rovers in the summer.

Sheyi Ojo

Back in November 2011, Ojo was talked up in scouting circles as one of the most talented kids in the country. Liverpool won the race for his signature when he was just 14 years old and reportedly paid MK Dons a fee in the region of £2million.

The winger went on to make eight Premier League appearances for the club amid no fewer than seven loans away – some more successful than others – and eventually moved permanently to Cardiff City, one of the clubs he’d impressed at.

But his second stint with the Bluebirds was less impressive, he was loaned out to Belgian side Kortrijk and in the summer he joined Slovenian side Maribor on a free transfer.

Raheem Sterling

You know the Sterling story.

At the end of the underwhelming 2014-15 campaign, he jumped ship to Manchester City – where he scored well over a hundred goals and won four Premier League titles, five League Cups and one FA Cup.

After a much less successful transfer to Chelsea, he’s doing a not-especially convincing job of getting his career back on track on loan at Arsenal. Early days, though.

READ NEXT: Where are they now? Liverpool’s 11 FIFA 15 wonderkids a decade later

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Harry Wilson

Having become a regular for Wales as a teenager while receiving rave reviews in a series of loans away, many believed that Wilson had what it took to come back and nail down a spot back at his parent club.

But he was never much fancied by Klopp, who handed him just two first-team appearances for his boyhood club, and Liverpool eventually cashed in by selling him to Fulham.

Wilson played a starring role in Marco Silva’s Cottagers going up and subsequently consolidating their top-flight status, but found himself dropped back to the periphery.

A January loan away has been touted, but a sensational injury-time double against Brentford showed that the Welshman is probably worth keeping around.

Lazar Markovic

Ah, Markovic. That one never quite worked out, did it?

Symptomatic of the club’s largely disastrous post-Suarez business, the Serbian winger arrived on Merseyside off the back of an excellent season at Benfica – where he was talked up as one of the most talented young prospects in Europe.

But he rarely demonstrated that potential at Liverpool and was eventually moved on after four unsuccessful loans away. Nowadays he’s turning out for UAE Pro League side Baniyas, having spent the last five years back in Serbia (Partizan) and Turkey (Gaziantep and Trabzonspor)

Jordon Ibe

As above, this was the year before Sterling’s ignominious move to The Etihad and that short-lived talk from certain corners of Liverpool’s online fanbase that academy starlet Ibe was actually going to be even better.

That take obviously aged like milk as the winger never quite made the grade at Anfield or kicked on at Bournemouth, with his £15million sale to the south coast ultimately proving excellent business for Liverpool.

Ibe himself has spoken honestly about his mental health struggles off the pitch and continues playing lower in the English football pyramid. Last month he joined non-league outfit Hayes & Yeading United.

READ: 7 former pros we can’t believe are still playing non-league football in 2024

Ryan Kent

The Oldham-born academy graduate made one brief FA Cup appearance for Liverpool and six loans away.

In 2019, after impressing on loan, he joined Steven Gerrard’s Rangers on a permanent deal and was an important player as they went unbeaten in the memorable 2019-20 campaign – still the club’s only title since 2011.

Kent left Ibrox as a free agent last summer and joined Turkish Super Lig giants Fenerbahce on a big-money, four-year deal. But he struggled for gametime in Istanbul and evidently had no part to play in Jose Mourinho’s plans, terminating his contract last month.

He’s still unattached and looking for his next club.

Adam Phillips

The midfielder caught the eye under Rodgers in a pre-season friendly against Brondby back in 2014, leading to his inclusion in FM2015’s list of wonderkids, but he never really made it into proper first-team contention and was quietly released three years later.

At that point, Norwich City picked him, kicking off a back-and-forth early part of his career with frequent moves and loans that rarely amounted to more than single-figure appearance totals.

But he’s really kicked on since joining League One Barnsley in 2022, becoming a mainstay of the Tykes team and hitting double figures for goals in each of their last two campaigns.

Divock Origi

We struggle to picture Origi in the time before Klopp, when he secured Kop hero status by somehow finding himself in the right place at the right time at the right time, again and again, to score important and iconic goals.

Having been signed by Rodgers in the summer of 2014, he was loaned back to Lille for the 2014-15 campaign – a fairly ordinary stint that chimes with his distinctly ordinary post-Liverpool career.

Jerome Sinclair

Liverpool’s youngest-ever debutant hasn’t taken the ordinary path of tumbling down the Football League, ending up at somewhere like Morecambe. Oh no, his tale is far more interesting.

The forward hung up his boots after being released by Watford back in 2021, having failed to kickstart his career in a series of forgettable loans from Sunderland to VVV Venlo to CSKA Sofia.

Since leaving football, Sinclair has gone into business and now owns a branch of fried chicken chain Morley’s. Thank you, Jerome Sinclair, for providing us with absolute ‘where are they now?’ gold. More of this kind of thing please, football.

The post Where are they now? Liverpool’s 13 wonderkids from Football Manager 2015 appeared first on Planet Football.

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