Rui Costa was adamant that Benfica’s loss would be Liverpool’s gain.
The former Portugal playmaker, now club president, was in the role of sporting director in the summer of 2014 when winger Lazar Markovic completed a £20 million move to Anfield.
“He’s a huge talent,” Costa declared. “His speed and skill can make a difference in the Premier League. He has the ability and flexibility to escape defenders easily. He is cold-blooded when he is in one-v-one situations and he is not afraid to face opponents. He is always eager to learn.”
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The former Chelsea manager Avram Grant, who had managed the Serbia international at Partizan Belgrade, went a step further in his glowing assessment. “I can say that, apart from Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, Markovic is one of the best talents I’ve ever seen at 19 years of age. He’s young, he’ll mature, and then nobody will be able to stop him,” he said.
Markovic was regarded as one of the most exciting youngsters in European football after helping Benfica win a domestic treble in 2013-14. Securing his services was viewed as a statement of intent from Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool as they sought to reinvest the proceeds from the sale of Luis Suarez to Barcelona.
Yet Markovic couldn’t live up to the hype. He struggled to adjust to the demands of English football. His name sits alongside Alberto Aquilani, Andy Carroll and Mario Balotelli when the debate rages over Liverpool’s most expensive flop of the Premier League era.
There were just 34 appearances, three goals, one assist, one red card, four loan spells and a stint training with the under-23s at the academy before he left on a free transfer in January 2019 after four and a half forgettable years. His career had regressed alarmingly and hasn’t recovered since.
Now 28, he should be at his peak but he’s back where it all started for him in Belgrade. On Saturday, he came off the bench for Partizan in their 2-0 victory over TSC Backa Topola. He hasn’t scored in 15 league appearances this season. Once Serbia’s great hope, he hasn’t represented his country since 2016.
Why did things go so badly for Markovic at Liverpool? This is a tale of upheaval, missed opportunities, misfortune, anger and a loss of hope. This is a story of potential unfulfilled.
“Lazar Markovic, wow, that’s a blast from the past. He was supposed to be the next big thing,” says Lisbon-based Portuguese football expert Tom Kundert.
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“He fitted the mould of Benfica buying a young player with a growing reputation, developing him further and then selling him on at a huge profit.
“He had a great season under Jorge Jesus. He had a lot of flair. At the start, he got some criticism for being a bit lazy but the manager defended him fiercely. He was adamant that patience was needed. Then something clicked and Markovic was excellent.
“People were thinking, ‘If he’s this good now, imagine what he’ll be like in a few years’. It was a blow when he was sold to Liverpool. Benfica fans were gutted to lose him so soon.”
It wasn’t a knee-jerk purchase. Liverpool had been aware of Markovic since he first broke through as a 17-year-old at Partizan. His pace was viewed as a major attacking weapon.
Director of football Damien Comolli had been keen to sign him in 2011 but was concerned he wouldn’t be able to get the player a work permit.
Markovic, a product of Partizan’s Belin-Lazarevic-Nadoveza academy that produced the likes of Stevan Jovetic and Matija Nastasic, continued to be scouted extensively. Tottenham Hotspur, Bayern Munich and Fiorentina also showed serious interest.
He was a boyhood Chelsea fan who grew up with posters of Gianfranco Zola on his bedroom wall. When Markovic joined Benfica in June 2013, Partizan club president Dragan Duric hinted that Lisbon would be a stepping stone for him before making a move to Stamford Bridge.
Rodgers certainly believed that was the case but, 12 months later, it became clear that Chelsea didn’t want to sign him. Arguably, that’s when the alarm bells should have been ringing but Liverpool still decided to make their move. At the time, Markovic was the fifth most expensive signing in the club’s history.
They had to pay £10 million to Benfica and a further £10 million to Leiston Holdings, an offshore company run by super-agent Pini Zahavi. The company owned 50 per cent of Markovic’s economic rights.
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An investigation by BBC’s Panorama claimed that Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea owner, was behind the company. Abramovich’s spokeswoman told Panorama at the time that there was no wrongdoing as the practice was allowed. She was right — FIFA didn’t ban third ownership of players until the following year.
Markovic was Liverpool’s fourth signing of the summer, following deals for Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana and Emre Can. Dejan Lovren, Alberto Moreno and Balotelli soon followed him through the door.
He signed a five-year contract on a basic wage of £45,000 per week. Liverpool also agreed to pay around £500,000 per year for his image rights. He was rated so highly that they offered him the No 7 shirt vacated by Suarez’s exit but he told them he wanted to stick with No 50.
“This is an exciting signing for us,” insisted Rodgers. “Lazar is flexible to play several positions, but I like the way he attacks games and is always positive and looking to make something happen. He will fit in with the way we play at Liverpool.”
Rodgers was enthused by Markovic’s arrival, despite tensions over transfers (Getty Images)The club’s transfer committee had become a source of friction internally. No player was ever brought in without Rodgers’ agreement but he was frustrated that the names he wanted didn’t always make it onto the shortlists he had to pick from. For example, he wanted Ashley Williams and Ryan Bertrand, but got Mamadou Sakho and Moreno.
The move for Markovic was certainly driven by other members of the committee but Rodgers was on board. He liked the fact that the player already had a European pedigree after playing in the group stage of the Champions League for Benfica before helping them reach the Europa League final. He had missed the showpiece final due to suspension following a touchline confrontation with Juventus substitute Mirko Vucinic in the semi-final.
The new boy was bullish about his prospects of making a fast start in England. “I am ready to play straight away,” he said. “I can become one of the best players in the Premier League. Perhaps I am so confident because in every season I have played I have finished as a champion.”
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However, he couldn’t back up those words. After a lively debut against Olympiakos in Chicago, he sat out the rest of the pre-season tour of America due to a tendon injury.
When he regained fitness he struggled to force his way into Rodgers’ team. Knocked off the ball far too easily, he clearly needed to bulk up to handle the physicality of English football. The coaching staff tried to drum into him the need to be more aggressive both in and out of possession. However, there wasn’t much of a response and he started just three Premier League games before Christmas.
“From the start, it was clear that Lazar was a nice guy — always having a laugh in the dressing room. He certainly didn’t make any trouble. I couldn’t fault his attitude,” then Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet tells The Athletic.
“Working with him at Melwood, we knew he had talent. We knew he could make the difference in games. You have to be of a certain level to do as well as he did for Benfica. In training sessions, especially small-sided games, his skill and ability to eliminate defenders and score were brilliant. In bigger spaces, he found things more demanding.
“He was still such a young lad when he came to Liverpool. He had only just turned 20. He found the Premier League really tough. It was a step up from what he was used to. He was quick but small, skinny and quite fragile. Playing as a winger against big physical defenders wasn’t really his game. He also had some bad luck with injuries, which meant he couldn’t get momentum.”
What didn’t help Markovic was the environment he had walked into. This was a club still wounded from the heartache of missing out on the Premier League title following Steven Gerrard’s infamous slip against Chelsea.
Liverpool had then lost Suarez to Barcelona and made a mess of replacing the prolific Uruguayan. Balotelli was ill-suited to Rodgers’ style. Three defeats in their opening five league games triggered a torrent of negativity.
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“Yeah, the situation around that season certainly wasn’t ideal for Lazar to perform,” adds Mignolet. “Plus, the transfer fee put a big expectation on his shoulders. That was a lot of pressure for someone so young. That’s not easy to deal with, especially when you’re adapting to a new country, a new language and a new style of football.”
Markovic found life away from Melwood difficult and never really settled. Initially based at the Hope Street Hotel, he had an apartment in the city centre before moving to a house in the Sefton Park area. A serious water leak didn’t help his mood.
Those who spent time with him talk of “a lovely fella, polite, very down to earth, but like a fish out of water. Family and friends would come over and visit, but for the most part, it was a lonely existence, his English wasn’t great and he looked a bit lost”.
Speaking to Serbian newspaper 24 Sedam last year, Markovic said: “The English are a little colder and in the first few months I couldn’t fit in.
“Life outside London is difficult in England. You dedicate 200 per cent to football, you have breakfast in the training centre, you train, have lunch, go home and that’s it.
“You have nowhere to go to drink coffee, to talk to someone. The day is hard and gloomy. You don’t do anything and it’s raining. I’d come from sunny Lisbon.”
Markovic found the days “hard and gloomy” (Photo: John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)A wretched Champions League group campaign for Liverpool ended with Markovic being sent off in a 1-1 draw with Basel in December 2014 just 14 minutes after being introduced off the bench at Anfield. It was a harsh decision for a flailing hand that barely touched Behrang Safari. Nothing was going his way.
The following week belatedly brought his first goal for the club in a League Cup win at Bournemouth and in January 2015, he scored the winner in the Premier League away to Sunderland.
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“I was with the squad at the Stadium of Light that day,” recalls Jordan Williams, who made his Liverpool debut alongside Markovic earlier that season.
“He scored and nearly got another one with a belting volley which hit the underside of the bar from the edge of the box. The technique was stunning.
“Lazar was quiet and shy around the place. You could see he had so much potential. He would do some brilliant stuff on the training field.
“I’m not sure why things didn’t work out. Maybe the physical side played a part, as he was quite skinny. Maybe he just didn’t put everything he had into it. The timing was unfortunate too. I’m sure if he had joined 12 months earlier he would have done a lot better.”
Rodgers managed to kick-start Liverpool’s flagging fortunes in 2014-15 by switching to three at the back. Markovic was utilised centrally as well as out wide but the resurgence didn’t last.
The wheels came off in the spring and Markovic was cast aside. Liverpool won just two of their final nine league games, culminating in the humiliating 6-1 thrashing by Stoke City.
Markovic’s last start for Liverpool in April of 2015 was the miserable FA Cup semi-final defeat to Aston Villa at Wembley when he was subbed off for Balotelli at half-time.
In August 2015, following the arrival of attackers Danny Ings, Christian Benteke and Roberto Firmino, he accepted the chance to join Fenerbahce on loan. Anfield officials were adamant he was still part of the club’s long-term plans.
Making that switch to Turkey has remained a source of regret for Markovic. Within two months, Rodgers had been sacked and Jurgen Klopp had taken over. If he had stayed put he would have had the chance to try to impress the new manager. He felt Rodgers didn’t show enough faith in him and didn’t play him enough in his favoured role wide on the right.
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“I didn’t have a good relationship with the coach,” Markovic said shortly after Rodgers’ exit. “That was a problem. I played in many positions but didn’t play in mine.”
He later added: “As soon as you leave (on loan), that’s it. They don’t look at you with the same eyes, no matter how good or bad you play.
“If Rodgers had told me, ‘I need you, don’t go’, I would have stayed, but at no point did he mention it. I had a correct relationship with Klopp, even though he didn’t play me. We didn’t have any problems with each other. He had his own plans.”
Markovic scored twice in 21 games for Fenerbahce before a serious hamstring injury ended his season in February 2016.
Markovic arrived in Turkey full of hope (Photo: Arif Hudaverdi Yaman/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)Klopp took Markovic on the following summer’s tour of America but he didn’t impress and he returned to Lisbon to join Sporting on loan.
“I’d forgotten he even played for Sporting. That’s how memorable his spell there was. It was a bit of a disaster,” adds Kundert. “To be fair to him the club was in complete chaos at the time.”
After just six league appearances, the loan was cancelled by mutual consent and Markovic spent the rest of the season with Hull City. There was an upturn in form but their relegation wrecked his hopes of sealing a permanent move.
“It’s very difficult when you go out on loan, especially when you don’t have the obligatory purchase clause,” he said. “You are not their player and you have to bounce 10 times more than all the players who are under contract with that club. Liverpool didn’t want to sell me for less than they bought me so they just pushed me away. I went from loan to loan. The English are very difficult in negotiations.”
With no club willing to meet Liverpool’s £16 million valuation, he stayed put for the first half of the 2017-18 season. He made the bench once but never played a single minute of competitive football under Klopp.
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In January 2018, he turned down interest from Swansea City and Wolfsburg before joining Anderlecht on loan. Following Markovic’s arrival in Belgium, manager Hein Vanhaezebrouck said his fitness levels were so poor that he would need a month to get up to speed.
After scoring against Genk towards the end of the season, Markovic criticised Liverpool for holding back his career by putting such a high price on his head. “It’s to show that I’m still the same player, to show the people at Liverpool that they can’t treat me that way,” he said. “It’s OK to take it personally when you are not let go because they’re asking for an unrealistic transfer amount.”
Mignolet always had sympathy for Markovic when he returned from his various temporary spells away knowing he had no prospect of forcing his way into Klopp’s plans.
“When you feel as a player you’re not going to be part of the story, it’s hard to stay positive. You have to try to find a solution because the joy comes from playing,” he says.
“I found myself in the same position at Liverpool. When I knew I wasn’t going to play anymore, it was a case of finding an option that was best for me and best for the club, and we did that with Club Bruges.
“I always felt Lazar preferred another style of football. I couldn’t see inside his head but I had the feeling after the first season when he went out on loan that he saw his career elsewhere.
“So much can happen in a career. You get injuries, your confidence gets knocked, you move from A to B to C, never really putting down roots. The road down tends to be a lot quicker than the road up. He’s still only 28 and I wish him well.”
Relations between Markovic and Liverpool didn’t improve. Sporting director Michael Edwards agreed a £2.9 million fee with Anderlecht on deadline day in August 2018 but Markovic pulled the plug late on. The player was adamant that “money was not the issue” but the Belgian club insisted otherwise.
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Klopp responded by banishing him to train with Neil Critchley’s under-23s at the academy. He embraced his new surroundings. Twice, he played for Critchley as an over-age player.
“We enjoyed having him around and he was great with the young lads,” says Critchley. “He was humble, listened to what was asked of him and he was professional.”
Williams adds: “I know when he was sent down to train at the academy, the boys said he was class. When they went for their Christmas meal out he paid for half of the whole bill — nice gestures like that.”
Markovic won friends in the under-23s but could not revive his Liverpool career (Photo: Nick Taylor/Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)Finally, at the end of January 2019 — nearly four years after his last appearance for the club against Queens Park Rangers — Markovic’s Liverpool career was over.
Granted a free transfer, he moved to Fulham on a short-term deal, with Liverpool saving themselves £1 million in wages and fees.
Hampered by a calf problem, he played just 45 minutes for the Londoners before being released that summer. He rejoined Partizan on a three-year contract that runs until the end of this season. They are currently in a tight title race with arch-rivals Red Star. Markovic is the club captain but has made only seven league starts in 2021-22. Partizan did not respond to The Athletic’s request to speak to Markovic.
Markovic celebrates a Partizan goal against Red Star in 2020 (Photo by Srdjan Stevanovic/Getty Images)“The fans were so happy when Lazar returned. When he first left, no one here expected him to be back playing in his homeland at such a young age,” says Belgrade-based Serbian football journalist Nemanja Stanojcic.
“He started this season very well but in November, he broke his collarbone in a game and was out for a while. Since he came back he’s not been at the level he was at before.
“Lazar was viewed as someone who was going to be a huge star for Serbia, especially when he signed for a big club like Liverpool. Everyone thought his future would be so bright. In hindsight, you could say it was a mistake leaving Benfica so young to join Liverpool. But when Liverpool come calling, it’s very difficult to say no. If you do that it’s unlikely they will come calling again.
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“To excel at the highest level you need to be prepared to give everything for football and be fully focused. You have to have the right mindset. He’s still searching for himself and he doesn’t have much time left.”
After such a fast rise, there was a painful fall for Lazar Markovic. Benfica cashed in and Liverpool were left counting the cost of an expensive mistake.
(Top photo: Sam Richardson for The Athletic/Getty Images)
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