Liverpool are already reaping the rewards from putting their chips on 16-year-old Rio Ngumoha. “What a moment, enjoy it,” Reds manager Arne Slot told the debutant, basking in his 100th-minute winner at Newcastle. He’ll hope there are many more moments to come.
It would have been quite the statement to say that, amid a £269m outlay to bring players with the quality of Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong and Hugo Ekitike, Liverpool’s most exhilarating prospect coming out of pre-season came in the form of a burgeoning teenage winger. But as was the hype surrounding the former Chelsea product, expectations were already rising. A player already drawing comparisons to Neymar off the back of his academy exploits, his delightful solo goal inside two minutes of his Anfield bow against Athletic Bilbao only added fuel the fire.
Such was the ability on show that Liverpool chose to take a risk and buck a Premier League trend of recent years. Instead of spending big on more “proven” players to fill the void left by Luis Diaz, Liverpool chose not to escalate their interest in the likes of Lyon’s highly-rated Malick Fofana and Paris Saint-Germain star Bradley Barcola in favour of backing the talent already at their disposal. A pathway has been provided into the first team for Ngumoha.
Four minutes into his competitive debut and that decision was vindicated. Ngumoha showed composure and conviction with a clinical first-time finish in the game’s final breath to deliver a victory for his side that looked to have slipped away. “Rio can finish so well for his age,” Slot asserted. “I did hear someone say afterwards in the dressing room he would have taken a first touch but he is so confident.”
Ngumoha has earned an opportunity that is increasingly rare in this Premier League era. In a football business culture where PSR reigns supreme, youth players have regularly become financial pawns for clubs due to the fact their sales inject clubs with immediate “pure profit” in their accounts. Conversely, incoming players take on an amortised value in the books, which sees their transfer fee amoritised – or spread – across the entirety of their contracts. This has contributed to academy products seeing their pathways blocked by a deluge of outside arrivals, something that would have likely been the case for Ngumoha at serial spenders Chelsea, had he not left for Liverpool in September 2024.
Even before the Todd Boehly days, Chelsea were particularly guilty of hindering the progression of youth prospects due to the lack of pathways, causing their careers to stagnate over a prolonged period. Lucas Piazon, who joined the Blues as a sought-after teenager in 2011, only managed three senior appearances for the club over nine years under contract, being shipped on seven loan moves in that time.
Manchester City have fallen foul of the same, notably relinquishing Cole Palmer due to an inability to promise now one of the league’s most prolific players game time. That same summer, City spent big on acquiring Jeremy Doku as an attacking reinforcement. In the two seasons that have followed, Palmer has scored 37 in the Premier League, while Doku has netted just six.
Arsenal, meanwhile, appeared to be opening the doors for their best prodigies to grow in the senior game. Ethan Nwaneri, 18 put pen to paper over a bumper contract this summer, while Max Dowman, 15, became the second youngest Premier League player in history during a stellar cameo against Leeds on Saturday. However, the arrival of Eberechi Eze – joining fellow English winger Noni Madueke through the door for a combined fee of £108.5m – could now hamper the first team opportunities for Nwaneri, and will likely draw a line under any senior minutes for Dowman, at least for the time being.
Yet for Liverpool, teenage starlet Ngumoha looks set to be part of Slot’s plans for the season. That is both down to his raw ability, as well as circumstance.
With six days until the transfer window closes – coming three days after his 17th birthday – the teenager is currently a key beneficiary of Liverpool’s somewhat incomplete summer business. Diaz’s £65.5m sale to Bayern Munich was one made with a keen eye not to lose another top player for less than their value. Liverpool did not see a better fee coming in for the 29-year-old Colombian, whose contract was due to expire in the summer of 2027. Darwin Nunez also followed out the door – his game time was always going to be limited this season, while Diaz would have been a regular in Slot’s team had he stayed put. The departures of both nevertheless opened up opportunities for others, a chance to shine that was snatched by Ngumoha in pre-season.
Ngumoha’s influential cameos during Liverpool’s summer tour of Asia was in part facilitated by Federico Chiesa’s absence, having been left out of the travelling squad. Chiesa has since found his way into Slot’s good books – although The Independent understands a move back to his homeland is still not impossible this summer – with the Italian coming on to score a late winner against Bournemouth on opening night. But by then, Ngumoha’s impression had already been made. He is now poised to share a portion of Diaz’s minutes with Chiesa providing he stays put, and first-choice left-winger Cody Gakpo.
That is assuming Liverpool don’t get a late move for Alexander Isak, the focal point of Monday’s heated meeting at St James’s Park, over the line. Newcastle are intent the wantaway Swede is not for sale, even more after his explosive statement on social media that spoke on “broken promises”. But if he does arrive and usurp fellow summer signing Hugo Ekitike as Liverpool’s premier No 9, the Frenchman – who has begun his Liverpool career by scoring three from three – will likely shift to the left, potentially starting ahead of Gakpo. That would knock Ngumoha further down the pecking order, the same outcome that partly discouraged the pursuits of Barcola and Fofana.
Slot may look to his predecessor, Jurgen Klopp, to how to handle this situation. Klopp notably avoided buying a right-back to allow one Trent Alexander-Arnold to flourish in the first team, a gamble that paid off in droves as Liverpool boasted the best right-back on the planet for a number of seasons. Ngumoha certainly has the potential to become one of the best. Whether he continues to be given the chance could prove decisive in him realising it at Anfield.
