Atletico Madrid Eye Divock Origi as Diego Costa Alternative?

With new Chelsea boss Antonio Conte all but shutting down a potential return to the Vicente Calderón Stadium for former Atletico Madrid striker Diego Costa, Los Rojiblancos have apparently cast their gaze to Merseyside and are rumoured to be eyeing a swoop for promising Liverpool forward Divock Origi.

Signed from French side Lille for big bucks after a number of stand-out performances at the World Cup in Brazil back in 2012, the Belgian striker immediately returned to Ligue 1 on loan where it’s safe to say things didn’t go quite to plan. Having been named in the “Worst Team of the Season” in his return to Lille, Origi was back on Merseyside the following summer with a serious lack of confidence.

After initially looking shaky at the start of the season, the 21-year old quickly found his feet when Reds boss Jurgen Klopp took over in October. Eyebrows were raised when he bagged a second half hat-trick in the 6-1 dismantling of Southampton in the League Cup and his profile was raised only further as he scored in both legs of their astonishing win over German side Borussia Dortmund in the quarter-finals of the Europa League.

Although he’s still young and inconsistent, Klopp is known to be a big admirer of Origi and a only a serious bid would be enough to tempt him to do business with Atletico for the Belgian — that is, if they’re even interested in signing him in the first place. Italian side Napoli have confirmed that the Spaniards are the only team to have made contact over want-away hit-man Gonzalo Higuain. While the 21-year old is certainly someone for the future, it’s quite unlikely that he’ll be moving to the Champions League runners-up anytime soon. The Argentinian on the other hand is not only a story for another day, but another website entirely…