Liverpool's failed wonderkid is now unrecognisable and has scored 95 goals in 24 games

He arrived at Anfield billed as a future star, but never lived up to the huge expectations.

Samid Yesil signed for Liverpool in 2012. (Image: @fussballbrasil_/Getty)

He was once billed as a striker with a big future at Liverpool, yet his name now scarcely resonates with the Anfield faithful. And no, we’re not talking about Rhian Brewster.

Brendan Rodgers signed Samid Yesil for a £1million fee in the summer of 2012. The German age-grade international arrived on Merseyside after making waves with Bayer Leverkusen, scoring 57 goals in 71 games before breaking into the first team. For Rodgers, this was no stab in the dark, but rather the capture of a forward with elite potential on the big stage.

Instead, he would make just two League Cup appearances for the first team in a nightmare four-year stint. A second-half cameo role in a 3-1 home defeat to Swansea would prove the last time home fans would get a glimpse of him in a paying capacity.

The problems began in February 2013 when on international duty with Germany Under-19s, rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament. He returned to training eight months later, only for another serious injury to further derail his career.

Brendan Rodgers signed the Germany Under-19 international for £1million. (Image: Getty)

An eventual loan spell to Swiss Super League side Luzern offered brief hope of a renaissance, but only yielded a single goal in 14 club games. Sure enough, by the summer of 2016, Liverpool’s patience, like Yesil’s contract, had expired.

Journeyman status followed. Yesil had stints in Greece, Turkey, and back in his native Germany, but never got close to replicating the form and potential that once saw him tipped for senior caps. Now, however, at 31, glimpses of the talent once lauded by pundits remain, albeit at an amateur level.

He now plays in Germany's ninth division with ATS Krefeld II. His current goal record provides a distant reminder of why Rodgers once targeted him as a player to help rebuild Liverpool.

Yesil has reportedly scored an incredible 95 goals in 24 games this season, essentially an average of four strikes per match. It’s a stat that will be lost on Liverpool fans, but for the player himself, both an impressive feat and a cruel indication of where he might have been were it not for his injury blows