Hugo Ekitike finds the Parc des Princes this Tuesday (8:45 p.m.) with the French team to face Iceland in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. The opportunity for the new center forward in Liverpool, recruited at the end of July for 95 million euros, to return to his mixed path to PSG, where he has never really found his place.
Arrived in the summer of 2022 from the Reims stadium, his training club, the 1.90 m striker had participated in 33 games in all competitions with Paris, mainly by coming into play, for a total of 1404 minutes. He had scored 4 goals and issued 4 assists, a deemed deceased assessment which led him to a loan to the Eintracht Frankfurt in February 2024, before a final transfer for 31.5 million euros.
Despite this difficult experience, Ekitike assures no grudge against PSG or his former coach Christophe Galtier. “It is not a revenge, it is football that speaks. I hung on and believed in me. There is no hatred towards what happened with Galtier or PSG. It was a learning and I have no regrets ”he confides at a press conference.
“Not everything was true”
The former Parisian also wishes to rectify certain perceptions of his passage in the capital. “Everything that was said when I was in Paris was not necessarily a real vision of my person or the player I was. I was in a huge club, with undoubtedly the biggest football stars. Inevitably, it was a complicated passage, but necessary ”he explains.
Today in Liverpool and in the blue jersey, Hugo Ekitike wants to show that he has progressed, on the sporting and human level.
“Return to France with the French team, to be able to show the player that I am and my person is a pleasure and I hope it will continue”he concludes.
