When Brendan Rodgers pulled the trigger and signed Lazar Marković, some supporters were left scratching their heads. He impressed towards the middle of the season, but he has not been on the pitch a whole lot recently. Lazar Marković has a lot more to prove if he wants to live up to the £20 million Liverpool paid for him.
Only a few years after the separation of Yugoslavia into different countries, Lazar Marković was born in Čačak, Serbia in 1994. Marković was developed at young age with his local side FK Borac Čačak, but as he grew older, scouts from elsewhere urged him to join their sides.
Marković chose FK Partizan, near the capital of Serbia, when he was only twelve years old. When he was still 17 years old, he was used as a second-half substitute in the final round of the 2010–11 SuperLiga.
That summer, in July 2011, Marković arrived at the Partizan training ground with his teammate Nikola Ninković, who is one of Europe’s most exciting talents. Together, they signed their professional contracts on five-year deals.
Marković shocked everyone in the area by being voted Partizan’s Player of the Year in 2011. In his first full senior season with Partizan, Marković made 26 league appearances and scored six goals. Despite the fact that he did not score any goals in the second half of the championship, Marković earned 2011–12 SuperLiga Team of the Year selection.
The 2012/13 season held high expectations for Partizan as they entered the group stage of an UEFA competition for the first time since 2010. Partizan were drawn in the same group as Inter Milan, where Philippe Coutinho still played. In fact, on 25 October 2012, Marković started for Partizan at the San Siro in Italy, where Coutinho started on the other side for Inter Milan. This match was on the same night Stewart Downing scored a screamer from outside the box in 1-0 Liverpool home victory over Anzhi Makhachkala in the Europa League.
By the end of the 2012–13 season, Marković appeared in 19 league games and scored 7 goals and earned a place in the Jelen SuperLiga’s Team of the Year selection for the second season in a row.
In the summer, Marković moved to Benfica in Portugal when he was 19 years old, but there was some confusion in the deal as many thought Chelsea had bought Marković and loaned him to Benfica. However, Benfica had landed the young Serbian permanently.
He did not start as many matches as he would have liked, but he was a weapon for Benfica off the bench. His blistering pace and tremendous dribbling led some to compare Marković to Raheem Sterling. At the conclusion of the 2013-14 season, Benfica had interest from multiple clubs in Europe. On 15 July 2014, Liverpool announced the signing of Marković from Benfica for £20 million.
Liverpool took a risk on Lazar Marković, but he has not nailed down his spot in the first team just yet. With glimpses of brilliance throughout the season, Marković has not been a consistent player. However, keep this in mind: he is still only 21 years old.
