Liverpool wonderkid set for pre-season chance

One Liverpool wonderkid is set for a golden opportunity this summer.

Pre-season is not far away now. There's just one week left to go until Liverpool begin their summer preparations on July 7th and thus also commence their Premier League title defence.

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Liverpool fans are in a privileged position this time around because they have the opportunity to be excited by a number of new arrivals in pre-season.

In total there will be six new faces coming to the AXA training centre next week. First among them will be Giorgi Mamardashvili, who agreed to sign for the Reds last year.

He'll be followed by the likes of Florian Wirtz, Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong who all agreed a move this summer.

Meanwhile, Freddie Woodman and Armin Pecsi, who also agreed moves to Liverpool this summer are also going to be joining up with the first team.

Seeing new signings at the club will be exciting but fans should also be excited by some of the youngsters who are expected to get an opportunity in pre-season as well.

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Chiefly among them will be Rio Ngumoha. According to the Liverpool ECHO Ngumoha will get the opportunity to catch Slot's eye in the next few weeks.

The report also claims that there are 'high hopes' for him at the club and mentions how Ngumoha has previously said he wants to win the Ballon d'Or.

Only 16-years-old at the moment, the fact that Ngumoha is expected to start pre-season preparations with the first team is exciting enough.

He established himself as a regular at U21 level last season, and he even caught the eye for the first team against Accrington Stanley in the FA Cup.

Last season, Ngumoha regularly trained with the club's first team, even forcing the club's media team to remove footage of him in the highlight clips in order to contain the hype around his potential as exclusively revealed by Anfield Watch.

But containing that hype will be difficult if he starts showcasing his quality in pre-season. Obviously, he has tough competition with both Cody Gakpo and Luis Diaz ahead of him in the pecking order - both will be prioritised in pre-season.

Nonetheless, the latter's future remains up in the air. Diaz could still leave the club this summer. And with two years left on his contract, he's definitely someone who doesn't have a long-term future at Anfield considering he's 28-years-old already.

So pre-season is a mega opportunity for Ngumoha to showcase he might be ready to succeed Diaz's role in the team. He'll be 17-years-old by the end of the summer. Still extremely young but it's an age where we have seen players establish themselves in the club's first team.

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Raheem Sterling and Michael Owen are notable examples. Ngumoha will be aiming to follow in their footsteps and pre-season will be a big opportunity for him to fulfil those ambitions.