Liverpool’s rising star Rio Ngumoha has signed the first contract of his professional career, the club have announced.
Ngumoha became eligible to sign a professional contract when he turned 17 on 29 August and has duly committed his immediate future to the Premier League champions. Liverpool have not disclosed the length or terms of the deal but the maximum contract a 17-year-old can sign is three years. Liverpool also have a wage limit for 17-year-olds.
The gifted winger joined Chelsea aged eight but left in September last year in the belief there was a clearer pathway to the first team at Anfield. The move caused ructions up to executive level between Chelsea and Liverpool, with the latter’s scouts banned from attending academy matches at the former’s training ground. A tribunal has yet to sit to decide the compensation fee that Chelsea should receive from Liverpool.
Ngumoha’s belief has been vindicated. He was quickly promoted from the under-18s to the under-21s at Liverpool and made a full debut for Arne Slot’s side in the FA Cup third-round win against Accrington Stanley in January.
The London-born teenager became a permanent part of the first-team squad this summer and has claimed two slices of Liverpool history, becoming the club’s youngest goalscorer with his 100th-minute Premier League winner at Newcastle in August and their youngest player in European competition with last week’s substitute appearance against Atlético Madrid in the Champions League.
Liverpool issued 1,114 lifetime bans last season as part of a crackdown on ticket touting, a huge increase on the 75 lifetime bans imposed in 2023-24. Most bans and indefinite suspensions were for the unauthorised selling of season tickets, memberships or hospitality tickets. Investigators for the club also closed down 162 social media groups, with a combined membership of more than 1 million users, that were involved in selling fake tickets or reselling real tickets at extortionate rates. A further 10,000 accounts are being investigated.
