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.
