He is one of the most prized teenagers in world football, a genuine star in the making who could have taken his pick of just about every team worth watching on the entire planet.
And it has always been that way for Fabio Carvalho, Liverpool’s new £7.5million signing, virtually ever since his parents took him out of Benfica’s academy and moved from Lisbon to London in 2013. Surprisingly, they chose to place the then 11-year-old not with one of the powerful Premier League academies in the capital, but with Balham FC, who were just about to be promoted into the Surrey South Eastern Combination, Intermediate Division Two.
It is a long way from training on Clapham Common, albeit with a community-based club who have a big reputation for developing youth talent, to Anfield. Yet every step of the way, he has been pursued by Europe’s biggest clubs. When he outgrew Balham, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea all spoke to his parents in attempts to lure him to their academies.
Instead, they showed awareness by choosing Fulham, and a better chance to make progress through the ranks towards the first team. It paid off, with Liverpool keeping tabs on his progress; and Real Madrid, and Dortmund, along with 10 other elite-level clubs who all made offers before he agreed to move to Merseyside.
Now, what Jurgen Klopp has signed is not only a 19-year-old with real promise... but a kid with the potential to be one of the next great players. You don’t get Chelsea, Madrid, City, United and Liverpool lining up unless there is something special. The question for Liverpool fans though, is when will they see Carvalho, and where will he fit into Klopp’s side? The answer is soon enough, because he hasn’t been signed to slot into the youth ranks.
He will join on July 1 when his Fulham contract expires, and will go straight into the first-team squad at Anfield, a sure sign that Liverpool’s coaches - some of whom have strong backgrounds in Portuguese football - believe in him. What Reds supporters should do though, is temper their expectation slightly.
At 19, he is not another Luis Diaz, a world-class star who has the experience and knowledge to slot straight in as a genuine first-team starter. Unlike Diaz, he will need time to learn the Klopp system, a complicated press-based organic tactical plan which evolves naturally on field, with a set of unspoken, intuitive triggers. It took experienced players such as Andy Robertson and Fabinho six months to absorb that knowledge, so there will be no rush with Carvalho.
He is seen as an attacking midfielder at present, a gifted number 10 with an eye for goal and a creative influence in the build up, but - initially at least - is far more likely to be utilised as a wide player in a front three, a position he sometimes took up at Fulham. There, boss Marco Silva sometimes used Klopp’s favoured 4-3-3, as well as a more open 4-2-3-1 system which saw Carvalho used in the number 10 role. For the young player’s talent, Klopp is not going to change his entire system to accommodate a teenager with three Premier League starts under his belt.
Many people seem to already believe that Carvalho’s arrival may signal the end of some big names at Anfield. After all, Roberto Firmino, Mo Salah and Sadio Mane all have just one year left on their current contracts, with the Brazilian no longer a guaranteed starter, and the most under pressure for his position. Yet it seems hugely unlikely Firmino will leave this summer, and more likely he will be given a new deal, though maybe not as a long contract as Salah and Mane can surely command. If Carvalho is considered a replacement for the popular Brazil striker, then it will be in the long term, not immediately.
He is not a replacement for Divock Origi, though there is the tantalising chance the Fulham forward could be used in a similar role, as a back up player for the cup competitions, and as an impact player from the bench. Origi may be remembered as an out-and-out centre-forward - which Carvalho most certainly is not - but he was frequently played by Klopp as a wide player in a front three, cutting in from the left to score some of his memorable goals for the Reds.
Carvalho has that capacity too, as a wonderful goal at Derby this season to put Fulham on the verge of Premier League return showed. Next season, if Salah, Mane and Firmino do stay, then there will be options galore for Klopp, with Diaz, Diogo Jota and Carvalho to choose from, along with Taki Minamino if he stays.
There is another prospect for the young Portuguese player too, which has not been spoken about so far. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain looks set to depart in the summer, opening up a slot in the midfield ranks as an attacking option there. Carvalho, is his fledgling career has been regarded as an attacking midfielder - whatever that means in today’s fluid football systems - and so may be used as a running option from behind the front three, to break the lines as Klopp sometimes asked Oxlade-Chamberlain to do.
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One aspect of his game which could see him get plenty of game time in his first season at Anfield, is a philosophy Silva has been keen to promote at Fulham, and teach the young star. Whichever system the former Everton boss uses, he wants it to be “fluid”, so that all his attacking players, whether in the front line or midfield, can interchange and swap roles and ‘positions’. This is something Klopp has strongly promoted in recent times, and spoke of as a requirement for a top team as they try to break down the inevitable massed ranks of defence which opponents frequently use against them.
Whatever his first taste of Liverpool action, it is clear the Reds have got themselves some genuine star potential, and a signing very much for the long term. His progress from 11 years of age has been outstanding, and he is described as a ‘serious, studious, and intelligent’ player by his current manager and team-mates, with a real appetite to continue learning.
There is no reason to fear he will lose that appetite now, and with the likes of Harvey Elliott, Curtis Jones, Kaide Gordon, Rhys Williams and even Trent Alexander-Arnold still 23 or under, it is clear Klopp is building his next great team.
