In Brendan Rodgers’ first summer transfer window at Liverpool in 2012, he signed Samed Yesil from Bayer Leverkusen.
The striker came through the youth system of the German club where he was one of the standout players in the academy, and his impressive displays include scoring 22 goals in 22 consecutive games for Leverkusen’s B team.
He made two senior appearances for the English club in cup competitions before rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament while on international duty with Germany’s U19 team in February 2013.
After recovering, Yesil suffered the same injury in January 2014 and was sidelined until August of the same year, but after failing to regain his form and fitness, Liverpool released him in 2016.
“For me the move was incomprehensible, as a striker you cannot switch to the Reds in the Premier League if you do not have the physical condition for it. Samed had to get used to everything new: the language, the country, the pace, he was not even ready for it,” Ziege told German outlet Sport1.
“I think a lot of people wanted to do business with him. You have to be very clever at this age to properly filter and understand everything.”
