In a new weekly series exclusively to This Is Anfield, ‘Where Are They Now’ is focusing on former players that have played for the Liverpool FC Academy and looks at their journey since they left the Reds, and how their career has progressed. The main aim of this series is to give a sense of nostalgia to the Liverpool readers and give them a break from the current day transfer speculations and team news and look back on the players who once represented Liverpool’s Academy.
This week’s edition of Where Are They Now focuses on striker Marvin Pourié. The reason why Pourié is in the first edition of the new series instead of more notable figures is because he has just recently signed for Danish champions FC Copenhagen, showing he has made another step in his journey since leaving Liverpool.
Born in Werne, in West Germany, Pourié arrived at Kirkby in 2006 from his local side, Hammer SpVgg at the age of 14, having represented German giants and Champions League Runners-Up Borussia Dortmund earlier in his youth career from 2002-2005. During his time with Liverpool, Pourié made a significant impact as he scored 12 goals in his first season with the Under 18s, and because of this earned him a call-up to the Germany Under 18 national side. Pourié represented Germany Under 18s in the 2007/08 season, scoring 3 goals in 9 games. His last game for Germany Under 18s was against Austria Under 18s in August 2008, but he hasn’t represented Germany since suggesting that he is now not considered at all by the Germany coaching team.
Pourié was only in Liverpool’s books for two years before he signed a professional contract with Schalke 04 in 2009 at the age of 18, a contract hat would have ended on the 30th June 2013. Once he arrived at Schalke, he was sent out on loan to Bundesliga second division 1860 München for the 2009/10 season, scoring 1 goal in his 10 appearances for the German side. Pourié made his debut for 1860 München in January 2009 in a domestic league cup third round match against Hamburg, which ended 3-1 to Hamburg. However, Pourié had to wait nearly a month to make his League debut, which was in February 2009 against MSV Duisburg.
Things were looking up for Pourié, he has just signed a contract with a very good German club, and was on loan to gain vital match experience, but just two months after his league debut, he was sacked by 1860 München after many undisciplined incidents and training ground bust ups and soon went from the highest point in his short career to the lowest point. He did return to the squad, but understandably didn’t feature for the rest of the season.
Many thought that Pourié wouldn’t return to München, but he surprised most people by joining them on loan for another season. After last season’s events though, Pourié was put back in the Under 19s squad to compete in the Bundesliga Under 19 league, in which he scored 1 goal in 6 appearances. The German Striker only lasted 6 months before 1860 München terminated his contract and he returned to Schalke. After yet another loan spell, this time at TuS Koblenz, where he scored 1 goal in 14 appearances, he found himself in Schalke’s second team. He played for Schalke II in the 2010/11 season, scoring 5 goals in 21 appearances.
After a painful two seasons at Schalke 04, Pourié made 0 appearances for the first team and scored a mere 7 goals in his 41 appearances in his loan spells and second team spell.
Pourié then moved to Denmark to make a fresh start to his footballing career, and signed a 3 year deal with Danish Superliga team Silkeborg IF, and immediately had more success in Denmark than Germany, because Pourié found the net 23 times in his 55 appearances for the club, a ratio of nearly a goal every two games. Following his success in Denmark, Pourié recently moved to Danish champions FC Copenhagen, who competed in the Champions League in recent years.
Since leaving Liverpool, Pourié has found it hard to kick-start his career and after years of loan spells and second division football, it seems that Pourié has found success in Denmark, and can be a very successful striker if his attitude and discipline doesn’t disrupt his career once more. Another problem that faces Pourié is that he is not very loyal and rarely stays at clubs until the end of his contract. Despite the German being only 22 years of age, he has played for 11 different teams throughout his career, so we will have to wait and see if Pourié can remain loyal to Copenhagen and become a successful striker.
Thank you for taking time to read the pilot of ‘Where Are They Now’, if you have any suggestions of who I should I write about next, be sure to leave a comment below. For more features and Academy updates, be sure to visit my personal blog at www.thenextgenkopites.wordpress.com and follow me on Twitter (@scotttayloruk) for Liverpool Academy updates as the 2013/14 season gets ever closer. I hope this will be a very successful series on This Is Anfield and I appreciate all the support.
Scott
Fan Comments