Liverpool lose key figure to another club as new sporting director makes his first move

Liverpool, the current leaders of the Premier League, bid farewell to Mads Jorgensen, a highly influential scout who made significant contributions to the club's success in the transfer market since joining in 2011.

Liverpool have strong associations with Scandinavia both among Reds supporters and in the playing staff, and 45-year-old Jorgensen is understood to have cultivated that link in his time at the club.

Former Eliteserien player Jorgensen is a Copenhagen-based Dane and will be working closer to home after joining Molde, the former Norwegian champions, who missed out on a European place by finishing fifth in the 2024 season.

Liverpool scout heads back to Scandinavia

Molde, now managed by former Norway head coach Per-Mathias Hogmo after he returned to Northern Europe from a spell in Japan with Urawa Red Diamonds, announced Jorgensen’s arrival this week.

“He has been a key player in identifying and scouting talent for one of the world’s biggest clubs,” reads Molde’s statement. “Now he returns to Scandinavia to join our ambitious scouting team.”

“This also marks the first signing for our new sporting director, Ole Jakob Valla Strandhagen, who has been clear about his desire to build on Molde’s proud tradition of player development.

“Jorgensen will work closely with the rest of the club’s scouting team to find the stars of tomorrow.”

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Jorgensen is understood to have been instrumental in Liverpool’s Scandinavian scouting operation, continuing the fine traditions of the club in the region, though the first team transfer activity in his time at Anfield has been focused elsewhere.

He was brought in soon after his playing career was ended by injury and has been part of a scouting team that’s worked on acquisitions from all over Europe and beyond, as well as identifying some of the most promising young talent across England.

That will stand Jorgensen in good stead as he and Standhagen seek to build a pipeline of player development that puts Molde back in contention at the top of Norwegian football.

Molde didn’t finish outside the top two in Eliteserien between 2017 and 2022, winning the league twice to add to three titles in four years – two under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – in the era of Tippeligaen.

The subsequent seasons have been less kind to the club. They finished fifth in both 2023 and 2024, looking in at the title race from the outside as Bodo/Glimt continued their rise and bagged their third and fourth Eliteserien championships.