Liverpool teen Ngumoha signs first pro contract

Rio Ngumoha signed his first professional contract with Liverpool on Thursday, with the Premier League champions rewarding the teenager for his first-team breakthrough.

His new deal comes a month after he scored his first goal for the club -- a dramatic 100th-minute winner in a 3-2 win at Newcastle United. He turned 17 four days later.

Ngumoha, whose five senior appearances for the club also include a Champions League victory against Atlético Madrid, had previously been on a scholar's contract.

He joined Liverpool in the summer of 2024 from Chelsea's academy. A tribunal is yet to decide how much compensation Liverpool need to pay to the west London club as part of the then-15-year-old's move up north.

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Speaking after Ngumoha's goal at Newcastle, Arne Slot reserved praise for the starlet.

"He's a player that can finish really well for his age," Slot explained. "How firm his shot was, you don't see this often for a 16-year-old.

"I did hear someone afterwards in the dressing room, I won't say who, said they would have taken that ball, have a first touch, then finish it off. But he is so confident.

"That's what I like, because the first ball he got he wasn't afraid. He immediately took someone on. When the second player came, he got across him, and for him to score that goal is not completely a coincidence because for his age he is an amazing finisher."