GdS: Vanished without a trace – how Origi became Milan’s ‘millionaire ghost’

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·29 aprile 2025

GdS: Vanished without a trace – how Origi became Milan’s ‘millionaire ghost’

Divock Origi arrived with big expectations in the summer of 2022, and yet now he has become the forgotten man at AC Milan.

As La Gazzetta dello Sport reports, the absurdity of the Origi situation stands out even more now, given that Milan will not be in the Champions League next season. Why? A club that will find itself without a significant injection of money are paying a player €4m net per season who does not play.

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It is a scenario that ‘rarely happens at a top club’. He is not a player on the fringes: Origi is a purged player in all respects, but under contract. At this level of salary – around €5.2m gross – it is a case that is probably unique in Europe.

It will be the same for the next sporting season, if in the next few months someone or something doesn’t come along to ruffle the waters of a pond that has been stagnant for too long.

Vanished without a trace

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.

The Swede made a blunt and unexpected announcement: “Origi and Ballo-Touré will play for Milan Futuro because they are not part of the first team project.” No interlining, no admissible diplomatic interpretation: the end of the road for both.

Fode Ballo-Touré has resigned himself a little and has put together a few appearances with the second team – with decidedly questionable results – while Origi has never featured. He disappeared into thin air, and he has no longer had access to Milanello to train.

No one has ever seen him at the training complex. Divock has not only disappeared from the Rossoneri world, he has disappeared in general. For someone with 2.3 million Instagram followers, it’s quite shocking to see his last post – from Tokyo – dated July 3, 2024.

On X (470,000 followers), it’s even worse: we have to go back to September 4, 2023, when the Belgian began his loan adventure at Nottingham Forest.

A huge failure

That loan to Forest was a welcomed return to the Premier League, in short a return home, to try get some motivation and get back in form. With Liverpool, Origi contributed heavily to the conquest of the Champions League 2018-19.

It was an illusion: Divock returned from the loan in Nottingham after having put together only 754 minutes (22 appearances) and only one goal. It was also a season that evidently did not entice potential suitors and in fact the Belgian remained, also due to his salary.

With two goals in 1,187 minutes for the Rossoneri, the pitiful numbers are inarguable. The latest reports speak of sightings in Rome and especially Florence, where he was spotted working in the Porta Romana sports centre a handful of kilometres from Piazza della Signoria.

He was training obviously in private, together with a personal trainer, and domicile in a city hotel. His last appearance in official matches dates back to April 21st of last year, away against Everton. That’s equivalent to a century, for someone who doesn’t have match rhythm and real training with the team.

What could happen in the summer? Practically anything. The path that Milan is praying for to come true is obviously that a buyer comes forward – needless to say that the Rossoneri would not ask for a transfer fee, and a loan would even be possible to get to the 2026 deadline.

After a year out of the game it is complicated to imagine that there is someone willing to pay him a salary of €4m. The alternative is therefore that it is the interested party himself who lowers the economic demands to entice some suitors.

In the absence of these two scenarios, it is conceivable that the Diavolo would terminate the contract, with a severance package obviously lower than the annual salary.

There would actually also be one last option: if the next coach were an admirer of Origi, a hige psycho-physical recovery could also be attempted. But, as of now, it seems like the plot of a science fiction movie.