The 16-year-old’s belief that opportunities at Anfield would be greater than Stamford Bridge seems to have been correct
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here was vindication as well as a place in the Liverpool history books for Rio Ngumoha with the ice-cool finish he swept past Nick Pope at St James’ Park on Monday. The 16-year-old has announced himself on the Premier League stage, as every one of his coaches predicted he would, though it is debatable his name would have registered so quickly without a bold decision taken a year ago.
Ngumoha was considered one of the brightest English prospects in the Premier League academy system when he stunned Chelsea last summer by leaving for Liverpool. If it was a wrench to leave the club he had joined aged eight, and for a Newham-born boy to leave London days after his 16th birthday, then the clearer route to first-team football that Ngumoha envisaged at Liverpool was compensation. Monday’s dramatic 100th-minute winner at Newcastle, when the teenager replaced Ben Woodburn as the youngest goalscorer in Liverpool’s history, aged 16 years and 361 days, justified that call.
Chelsea made several contract offers to Ngumoha and were so miffed when he left that they sought to guard against future poaching by banning Liverpool’s scouts from attending academy matches at their training ground. It is understood that terse words were exchanged at executive level.
