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(Credit: Imago)

Ciaran Morrison

Mon 4 August 2025 18:37, UK

Liverpool fans have been left wowed by the performance of an upcoming star at the club during their pre-season friendly with Athletic Bilbao.

The Reds are continuing their pre-season preparations with a double header against the La Liga side to give minutes to the majority of Arne Slot’s squad.

The matches also give academy and fringe players the opportunity to impress the manager ahead of the new season which begins at home to Bournemouth in 11 days time.

Slot has been busy in the transfer market spending over £200million on transfer and the Dutchman still wants to add Newcastle United striker Alexander Isak to his squad.

Rio Ngumoha made the Liverpool squad in the League Cup last season.

(Credit: Paul Terry / Sportimage)

It took only two minutes for 16-year-old Rio Ngumoha to score against Athletic Bilbao at Anfield to put his side ahead in the match.

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On their social media account Liverpool called Ngumoha’s goal an “incredible finish” and the comments underneath exploded with fans hailing the youngster as the next big thing.

One fan commented “Luis Diaz who?” after Liverpool sold the Colombian winger to Bayern Munich less than a week ago.

Having sold Diaz, and with the potential departures of Harvey Elliott and Fedrico Chiesa, Slot may have been thinking about dipping into the transfer market again for a new winger.

The form of Ngumoha in pre-season though potentially means Slot can afford to not sign a new player and instead give the 16-year-old more first team minutes in cup competitions.

This pre-season has been a success for the youngster and Liverpool fans clearly want to see more from him, with some even suggesting Cody Gakpo’s place in the team is under threat.
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