Liverpool have signed a “top player” in former Chelsea wonderkid Rio Ngumoha, according to Blues legend John Terry.
The teenage winger officially completed his move to Anfield this week following a five-stage Premier League review process, having first agreed a scholar’s deal back in July after deciding to leave Chelsea’s academy.
The transfer has been seen as a coup for Liverpool, who have secured the services of a player considered by many as among the most talented young prospects in English football.
That is a view evidently shared by former long-serving Chelsea captain Terry, who has worked back in the club’s academy since last summer after leaving his previous coaching consultancy role in west London for a brief stint as Dean Smith’s assistant manager at Leicester.
Replying to a post from Fabrizio Romano on Liverpool’s deal for Ngumoha, Terry wrote on Instagram: “This boy is and will be a top player.”
Ngumoha confirmed his departure from Chelsea on social media earlier this week, writing: “Thank you for everything Chelsea Academy.”The Athletic reported that a tribunal would likely be required to decide the final compensatory fee owed by Liverpool to Chelsea for Ngumoha, who joined up with Marc Bridge-Wilkinson’s Under-18s squad and has already been training with the U21s under Barry Lewtas.
"It's a nice introduction for Rio," Lewtas told Liverpool’s official website after an U21 training session at Kirkby that involved both Ngumoha and Federico Chiesa, the club’s only senior summer signing who is working on his fitness after joining from Juventus in a cut-price deal with a view to making his debut after the international break.
"It's a chance for him to get to know the U21 players and an opportunity to train as well with the first-team staff.
"Getting to know people as soon as you come is really useful because it helps you settle, it makes you more familiar and it gives you that grounding.
"Obviously with Federico, we've done this a number of times now [where] we'll bring boys round, and it gives him a chance to build his fitness and get him ready for the season as well."
On Chiesa training with Liverpool’s youngsters, Lewtas said: “We've been coming round here for a while and the first-team players, their level of professionalism is unbelievable, it really is.
"Obviously you can see from the quality of his career so far, this is why he's at one of the best clubs in the world. His professionalism and his quality was really good.
"It obviously just gives our boys a little bit of a chance to play against someone of that quality [and] it's a really good learning opportunity for them.
"I think any time when we come round to the first-team side, which we do a lot, is always really good. It's a change of scenery but also more importantly gets us around first-team players and first-team staff, which is important for the boys."
