FactfileHugo Ekitike joins Liverpool - 13 things to know about the forward

The 23-year-old has become the latest addition to Arne Slot’s reigning Premier League champions, signing a long-term contract having passed a medical.

Formerly of Stade de Reims and Paris Saint-Germain too, he heads to Anfield on the back of an outstanding campaign for Eintracht in 2024-25.

Here are 13 things to know about the Reds’ new recruit…

A stellar attacking output. Ekitike departs Frankfurt having provided plentiful goals and assists during his single season as a permanent member of the Eintracht squad. To be precise, across all competitions in 2024-25 he hit the net himself on 22 occasions and set up a teammate a further 12 times. Twenty-three contributions came in the Bundesliga to help his team finish in third place. Overall, his numbers were produced from 48 appearances, making for a healthy rate of 0.71 goal contributions per match.

Bundesliga Team of the Season inclusion. Unsurprisingly, given the figures mentioned above, Hugo’s form gained him a place in the official Bundesliga Team of the Season for 2024-25, alongside new Liverpool teammate Florian Wirtz. “The young France forward has become the focal point of an excellent Frankfurt attack,” said the division’s summary. “The Frenchman has pace, power and a clinical finishing ability to match.”

Most shots in the league. Nobody tried their luck with a strike at goal more often than Ekitike in Germany’s top flight last term. He set his aim 115 times, with only Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane also in triple figures (110) across the league.

But he’s an unselfish player too. Another list Ekitike topped last season was that of chances created in the Bundesliga for Eintracht, the forward having registered 44, at an average of 1.54 per 90 minutes played. His seven goal contributions from 12 outings as Frankfurt reached the Europa League quarter-finals were almost evenly split too (four goals, three assists).

Carrying his team forward. Opta analysis shows that Ekitike’s skillset also includes the ability to not only advance his team up the pitch but turn such moments into goalscoring opportunities. In the past Bundesliga campaign, he tallied more carries that ended with a shot (44) than any other player, a full dozen more than the next-highest. Hugo also ranked joint-fifth for carries that led to a chance for his side (17), with Wirtz one of the four players above him.

A Ligue 1 champion. Ekitike claimed a league winner’s medal in the French top flight in 2022-23. His debut season with PSG after joining from Reims ended in championship success as he featured 25 times alongside the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Neymar. Just out of his teens at the point of joining PSG, he chipped in with three goals and four assists for the cause as they pipped Lens to the title by a single point.

He’s described as ‘exceptional’. That’s the word used by both Dino Toppmoller and Markus Krosche, head coach and sporting director of Eintracht respectively, when discussing Ekitike. “Hugo is a player with extraordinary qualities, he’s exceptional,” said Toppmoller. Meanwhile, Krosche commented: “He has made great progress in just one year. He already has an exceptional scoring rate and has the potential to become one of Europe’s best strikers.”

A France youth international. Ekitike’s heritage means he was eligible to play for either France or Cameroon at international level, and he opted for Les Bleus. To date, he has made 11 appearances for his country’s U20 and U21 outfits, with five games for the latter group seeing him score five times.

He has caught English eyes. Three of those goals at U21 international level came in March of this year as France beat England 5-3 in a thrilling friendly played in Lorient. A match that featured three goals inside the opening seven minutes saw Ekitike produce a hat-trick for the hosts against a Young Lions team for whom new Reds colleague Harvey Elliott started and also scored. A few weeks later, on English soil, he conjured a stunning low effort from outside the box to open the scoring away at Tottenham Hotspur for Eintracht in the Europa League last eight.

Fourth country played in. Hugo only turned 23 in June but this move to Merseyside represents a fourth new environment of his football career. The Frenchman’s development in his own country included a loan spell out at Vejle Boldklub in Denmark, before Frankfurt became his third different experience in January 2024, initially on loan again. Liverpool now welcomes him as another fresh chapter in his life.

He’s a palindrome! When he pulls on the Liverpool shirt soon, Ekitike will join a small band of players with a particular curiosity – those whose surnames are spelled the same backwards as forwards. For the Reds, there was previously Andrew and David Hannah, who each represented the club in the late 1800s, the former being its first ever captain. In more recent times, Sheyi Ojo and Ozan Kabak have also been palindromic players at LFC.

‘A simple guy.’ Ekitike describes himself as a quiet, chilled character away from the pitch, mostly preferring the comforts of home during his free time. A watcher of the NFL and lover of basketball, he is also a big fan of rap music, particularly that of French artists. “Outside from football is a different side of me, I’m very chilled. I love to be at home with my family,” he once said. “I’m just like a simple guy!”

Follow him on social media. The Reds’ new man is active on X, where he posts under the username @hekitike9, and Instagram as @hekitike. If TikTok is your bag, you’ll find him under @hekitike there too.