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Freddy Adu and rap star Lil' Jon during Spike TV's 2nd Annual 'Video Game Awards 2004' - Red Carpet at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California, United States(Image: Chris Polk/FilmMagic for Nickelodeon Magazine)

Freddy Adu, the former United States international best known for his emergence as a teenager, has urged Liverpool starlet Rio Ngumoha to stay grounded in his attempts to make the senior grade at Anfield.

Adu became the youngest athlete to sign a professional contract in American sports history when he penned a deal with DC United in 2004 at the tender age of 14.

But despite becoming the youngest player to make their debut in Major League Soccer that year before a call-up to the United States national side in 2006, Adu struggled to live up the impossible hype on the other side of the Atlantic, and ended up having a nomadic career that saw him turn out for 15 clubs in total before retiring in 2021.



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Ngumoha has quickly established himself as a young winger with huge potential during his year with the Reds so far and the 16-year-old has caught the eye with an impressive showing this summer, scoring three times for Arne Slot's Premier League champions during pre-season.

Adu admits he was put on notice by Ngumoha's early strike in the friendly victory over Athletic Club at Anfield last week and the now 37-year-old has some words of advice for an England youth international whose reputation is beginning to soar.

"So I didn’t know much about him as a player until I heard about him because of the game against Athletic Bilbao," Adu, speaking exclusively to epl odds said.

"But for him to be able to do that at the age of 16, that's impressive.

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"For any 16-year-old to do that, that's not by accident, especially doing it for a club like Liverpool.

That's not by accident.

"For you to be able to do that at that age, you clearly have to be uber talented and for him, I would say the same thing as I would say for Lamine Yamal - just keep the main thing, the main thing.

Rio Ngumoha has a brilliant pre-season for Liverpool.(Image: Carl Recine/Getty Images)Article continues below

"Keep it about football.

People are going to sing your praises when you do well, and the same people are going to just pile on you when you're not doing well.

"So you can't get too high and you can't get too low, you gotta sort of keep an even keel.

Keep your head down, keep doing exactly what you were doing that got you to where you are."

Ngumoha was an unused substitute during Sunday's Community Shield penalty shootout defeat to Crystal Palace at Wembley.