Former Liverpool star who joined club for seven-figure sum at 16 unemployed after release from non-league Maidstone
A FORMER Liverpool prospect who cost the club £1MILLION at 16 is now unemployed after being released from non-league Maidstone.
Yusuf Mersin joined the Reds as a youngster after impressing at Championship side Millwall in 2011.
He reportedly joined the club in a seven-figue deal despite his young age.
He made the move to Anfield while studying for his GCSEs and his dad congratulated on his son’s move by Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish.
Now 28, he has found himself on the hint for a new club after being released by Maidstone after two-years at the club.
Mersin spent the most recent season out on loan at Welling United.
He told KentOnline: “The papers were saying I cost £1 million.
“It’s nice to have that, although I didn’t see any of the money.
“It’s mad looking back, thinking about it now.
“It was all a bit surreal at the time. I was still at school and suddenly I was leaving everything behind to start a new life up north.
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“I didn’t really know what was going to happen.”
He spent three years at Liverpool, but never made a first team appearance before leaving for Turkish side Kasımpaşa in 2014.
However, Mersin believed that he was close to getting a new contract at the club after playing for the youth sides.
He added: “At the end of my contract I was verbally told I would probably get a new deal but I went over on my ankle badly and injured myself, which did for that.
“[Simon] Mignolet drove me home from Melwood to where I was staying and he didn’t have to do that.
“He was a great keeper and a great man, so I’ll always remember that.
“It was an unbelievable time, going into these team meetings, an unbelievable experience. I still feel attached to the club now.
“My missus is Scouse and all her family are mad football fans, and I still speak to the first-team goalkeeper coach, John Achterberg, and some of the other guys there.”
After leaving Kasımpaşa, he went on to play for Crawley Town and Dover Athletic before joining Maidstone.