The teenager’s dramatic winner against Newcastle showcased the talent that Anfield club knew he had when signing him from Chelsea, a transfer which will result in a tribunal
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The moment Rio Ngumoha’s first shot as Premier League footballer nestled in the back of the Newcastle United net did not just spark frenzied celebrations with his team-mates in a corner of Tyneside.
Back on Merseyside, those who worked with the 16-year-old after he joined Liverpool’s academy last season would have leapt out of their armchairs at the sight of the left winger announcing himself as the club’s youngest-ever goalscorer.
The scene in a hotel room in Rome was similarly euphoric.
Barry Lewtas is in Italy at present coaching England Under-16, having left his role in charge of Liverpool’s under-21s in the summer. Yet Ngumoha’s 100th-minute winner at St James’ Park transported him back to the training pitches at the club’s Kirkby headquarters, where hours were spent encouraging the prodigy to take up the very position from which he scored.
“A lot of our work last year was trying to get Rio inside the back post when the ball was getting crossed on the other side,” Lewtas said. “So when I was watching the game over here, it was like it went in in slow motion for me. I jumped on the WhatsApp group I’m still in with Jay Spearing and Jacob Dunne-Simon, who is an analyst at the academy, and said, ‘Fair play! In the big moment, he got in there and he stuck it away.’ It was brilliant to see that.”
In an interview published on Liverpool’s website after a dramatic top-flight debut,
Ngumoha recalled how his coaches would demand, “make the back post, make the back post” in an attempt to refine the teenager’s craft.
When Dominik Szoboszlai dummied the ball for the goal, it was not because he had scanned and spotted the youngster. Rather, he reckoned that is where Ngumoha should have been if he had been listening during training.
That he was in position, and proceeded to apply an emphatic finish, speaks to the size of a talent recruited amid much acrimony from Chelsea 12 months ago. The ill-feeling was such that Liverpool’s scouts were briefly banned from attending youth games at their rivals’ Cobham facility after luring Ngumoha to Anfield with the promise of a pathway into the first team.
Liverpool’s commitment is such that links with Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League winner Bradley Barcola and Malick Fofana, Lyon’s exciting talent, in recent weeks have been instantly played down due to Ngumoha’s eye-catching progress.
Chelsea will be due compensation for a player they picked up at the age of eight, but with the two clubs at loggerheads that figure will be determined by a Professional Football Compensation Committee, which could meet before the end of September. Both clubs will submit evidence beforehand and witnesses can be cross-examined during the hearing.
A similar tribunal that sat when Liverpool took Harvey Elliott from Fulham in 2019 ruled in February 2021 that they should pay £1.5million, plus £2.8million in possible add-ons, which was a record figure. However, Elliott had already made three first team appearances by then.
Ngumoha initially played for Liverpool Under-18 and in the Uefa Youth League before finishing the season with the under-21s, when the emphasis was on improving the output of a player who oozed potential but did not necessarily stand out.
“There was a lot of noise around his signing, but you quickly realise that you’ve got a 16-year-old on your hands,” Lewtas said. “He’s a lovely kid. Polite. He’s been brought up really well and he wants to do well.
“There was one moment in an early training session where Rio picked up the ball and he beat a couple of the lads — I don’t want to say how many, but it was quite a few to be fair — and the staff looked at each other as if to say, ‘OK!’
“From there, you are trying to find a few areas where you can make a bit of an impact and add to his game. Obviously a big one was trying to maybe up his numbers a little bit. And one of them was kind of getting inside the second post when the ball was coming from the other side.
“That sounds quite straightforward, but it can be difficult as well. He’s really open to improvement and he’s living out his dreams at the minute. It’s lovely to see.”
Working with Arne Slot’s first-team squad last term and especially during pre-season, when Ngumoha took another step forward, has aided his development.
On Tuesday, he was back in training, where the Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk was ready to offer all the advice needed to help ensure an upward trajectory continues to be plotted.
“If you make your Premier League debut at 16, scoring the winner, then that is a great sign of quality and being a special talent,” Van Dijk said. “But I also know you have to take it game by game. It should motivate him even more to keep working each and every day and stay humble.
“He is in a good environment to progress. He has to look after himself and he has to learn from all of us who have been playing for so many years at the highest level, and take it on board and progress. That is a good target for him.
“It starts with mentality, of course. You have to have the right mindset. Nowadays, if you are a football player of the highest level, it takes much more than just playing on the pitch.
“You have to deal with a lot of things off the pitch as well. Mentally, physically, there are a lot of games. But it is a good start from him. He has to have the motivation to keep working and, hopefully, he will have a fantastic career.”
Before Liverpool headed home on Monday night, Ngumoha found Dan Burn, the Newcastle defender, making a beeline for him. Despite the pain of defeat, Burn was gracious, congratulating his rival and urging him to enjoy the moment. That will not have been difficult for someone who is only eligible to sign a three-year professional deal when he turns 17 on Friday.
On Sunday, Ngumoha will come up against Arsenal’s Max Dowman, who is only 15 and made his Premier League debut last weekend.
It is a young man’s game and Ngumoha is not just a trailblazer, but also a role model.
There was only one topic of conversation when Lewtas, who is also working with England Under-20 in the coming months, addressed his squad of players on Tuesday.
“Rio’s impact is a really good one for me because he’s done this camp that I’m on with England at the minute,” he added. “So we actually mentioned him in the meeting this morning to this group of England under-16s, saying: ‘Look, the game can move quite quickly. Rio was in your boots a year or so ago. And now he’s made an impression on the first team at Liverpool.’
“Without him realising it, he’s become a real kind of a motivator for a lot of young, talented English players.”