Arne Slot REWARDS Rio Ngumoha ahead of Liverpool lineup announcement v Aston Villa

The signing of 16-year-old Rio Ngumoha from Chelsea this summer was seen as a huge coup for Liverpool’s academy.

The winger is seen as one of the most exciting attacking talents in the world. Chelsea were so desperate to retain the youngster’s services that they revoked Liverpool scout licenses to attend their youth games in the aftermath of the transfer.

It is a wild overreaction but is almost understandable when you watch Ngumoha play. He hit the ground running for Liverpool, grabbing an assist in just his second game against Leeds United under-18s.

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Ngumoha was recently away from Liverpool to play for England’s under-17 side in their Euros qualifiers. He starred once again, starting games against both Malta and Sweden, making a substitute appearance against Latvia.

And he justified these selections with an assist in the 4-0 defeat of Malta’s youth side.

He then returned to the Reds with aplomb for this week’s UEFA Youth League game against Bayer Leverkusen under-19s. Liverpool ran out 4-1 winners but it was Ngumoha that stole the headlines, channelling his inner Neymar with an outrageous dribble and assist for Keyrol Figueroa to put the Reds 3-1 up.

And his form continued Saturday morning, grabbing another assist as Liverpool went 1-0 up on Stoke City under-18s.

Ngumoha trains with first team

As a result of this sensational form, Ngumoha has been seen training with the first team ahead of this evening’s high-stakes tie with Aston Villa.

This is not the first time Ngumoha was invited to link up with the senior side, training with Arne Slot’s men during September’s international break - despite a lot of the squad being away on international duty.

Yesterday’s training session came about purely on merit, though. Slot’s willingness to slowly integrate young players into the senior setup has been demonstrated with Trey Nyoni, and Ngumoha is clearly being trusted with this too.

Ngumoha recently gave an interview in which he declared: "I truly believe I can win the Ballon d'Or one day. I want to be regarded as one of the best players to ever play football and be a legend of the game."

This level of confidence is exactly what it takes to perform at the level that Ngumoha has been. He’s playing against boys with more years and more experience than himself and is making them look like it’s the first time they’ve stepped on a pitch.

The world is this young man’s oyster. Expect to see him in a first-team matchday squad sooner rather than later.

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