DIVOCK ORIGI remains in contract limbo after he refused to terminate his deal with AC Milan.
This decision comes despite the Belgian not having played a senior competitive game for the Italian giants since 2023.
He was sent down to Milan’s U23 team ahead of last season, and did not make a single senior appearance for the Rossoneri.
Now, reports emerging from Italy suggest the 30-year-old has turned down a chance to get out of his contract after being unable to agree on a settlement fee.
Origi is now reportedly stranded at the club due to a defunct tax law called the Growth Decree.
The regulation – scrapped in 2023 after he signed with Milan – allowed the club to pay lower tax on his wages, but means he cannot leave the country for extended periods of time.
He has just one year left on his deal, and he will be forced to sit out another campaign unless he can come to an agreement with the club to tear up the contract.
Origi is most familiar to fans across the world for his spell with Liverpool, with whom he became a cult hero thanks to his contributions off the bench.
His heroics against Barcelona and a game-sealing goal in the final meant Origi was vital in Liverpool’s Champions League-winning campaign in 2019.
But he subsequently fell out of favour in the north-west, and joined Milan on a free transfer in 2022.
He struggled to make an impact in Italy alongside strikers such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Olivier Giroud.
He made a brief return to the Premier League in the 2023/24 season when he joined Nottingham Forest on loan.
But again he failed to turn heads, or even score a goal in his 20 appearances, and it was the last competitive football he would play to date.
Now he faces the prospect of another year ticking away as he enters the final years of his career.
If he has any hopes of making a return to the first team, he faces competition from Santiago Gimenez and new arrival, former Chelsea forward Christopher Nkunku.
Read the full article here