Liverpool Hand rio Ngumoha First Professional Contract After Historic breakthrough Season
LIVERPOOL – Liverpool Football Club has rewarded teenage winger Rio Ngumoha with his first professional contract, recognizing the rapid ascent of the 17-year-old into Arne Slot’s first team.The deal, finalized this week, is subject to the maximum length permissible for players of his age – three years – and falls within Liverpool’s established wage parameters for 17-year-olds.
Ngumoha joined Liverpool last September after leaving Chelsea, where he had been as the age of eight, seeking a more direct route to senior football. His transfer sparked a dispute between the two clubs,resulting in Liverpool scouts being banned from attending academy matches at Chelsea’s training ground. A tribunal is pending to determine the compensation fee owed to Chelsea by liverpool.
The London-born player quickly progressed through Liverpool’s academy ranks, moving from the under-18s to the under-21s shortly after arriving. He made his full first-team debut in January’s FA Cup third-round victory against Accrington Stanley and has sence become a fixture in Slot’s squad.
Ngumoha has already etched his name into Liverpool’s record books, becoming the club’s youngest ever Premier League goalscorer with a 100th-minute winner against newcastle United in August and their youngest player to feature in European competition during last week’s Champions League match against Atlético Madrid.
In separate news, Liverpool announced it issued 1,114 lifetime bans last season as part of a crackdown on ticket touting, a significant increase from the 75 bans imposed in the previous season. The club targeted the unauthorized sale of tickets, closing down 162 social media groups with over 1 million combined members involved in fraudulent activity and initiating investigations into a further 10,000 accounts.
