There was vindication as well as a place in the Liverpool history books for Rio Ngumoha with the ice-cool finish he swept past Nick Pope at St James’ Park on Monday. The 16-year-old has announced himself on the Premier League stage, as every one of his coaches predicted he would, though it is debatable his name would have registered so quickly without a bold decision taken a year ago.
Ngumoha was considered one of the brightest English prospects in the Premier League academy system when he stunned Chelsea last summer by leaving for Liverpool. If it was a wrench to leave the club he had joined aged eight, and for a Newham-born boy to leave London days after his 16th birthday, then the clearer route to first-team football that Ngumoha envisaged at Liverpool was compensation. The dramatic 100th-minute winner at Newcastle on Monday, when the teenager replaced Ben Woodburn as the youngest goalscorer in Liverpool’s history, aged 16 years and 361 days, justified that call.
