Rio Ngumoha has bid farewell to Chelsea as he looks set to finally complete a move to Liverpool.
The highly-rated 16-year-old winger was first said to have agreed to join the Reds back in July after he left Chelsea’s academy.
Fabrizio Romano now reports that Ngumoha’s switch to Anfield is poised to be completed after a five-step process involving the Premier League.
The England Under-16 international took to social media on Wednesday to say his goodbyes to Chelsea ahead of the move to Merseyside, writing on Instagram alongside a picture of himself as a child with a Blues shirt: “Thank you for everything, Chelsea academy.”
The deal for Ngumoha would appear to represent something of a coup for Liverpool, having been highly thought of in Chelsea’s youth ranks and widely regarded as arguably one of the most promising young attacking talents in English football.
Reports suggest the teenager will start off in the Reds’ U18 squad currently coached by Marc Bridge-Wilkinson.
Liverpool only completed two first-team transfers during a surprisingly quiet first window at the Anfield helm for new manager Arne Slot, sporting director Richard Hughes and returning CEO of Football Michael Edwards, with Italy forward Federico Chiesa arriving from Juventus in a cut-price deal worth £12.5million.
The Reds also agreed to sign Georgia goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili for £29m plus a further £4m in add-ons, with the player remaining at Valencia for the rest of the current season before moving to the Premier League next summer.
Liverpool sold both Fabio Carvalho and Sepp van den Berg to Brentford in addition to releasing Joel Matip, Thiago Alcantara, Adam Lewis, Melkamu Frauendorf and Mateusz Musialowski, plus academy players Nathan Giblin, Francis Gyimah, Luke Hewitson, Niall Osborne and Cody Pennington.
Veteran goalkeeper Adrian also rejected a new contract offer to return to Spain, while there were loan exits for a host of players including Stefan Bajcetic, Ben Doak, Calvin Ramsay, Nathaniel Phillips, Rhys Williams and Marcelo Pitaluga.
