Billy Koumetio has become somewhat of a forgotten man at Liverpool since the excitement around him four years ago. The centre-back impressed in pre-season in 2020 and then became the youngest ever player to play for the club in the Champions League that September against FC Midtjylland.
Jurgen Klopp said of Koumetio, and fellow debutant Leighton Clarkson who now plays for Aberdeen: “They are already really skilled but they have a lot to learn and we will give them the time to do so. I am really thankful that they are already as good as they are. That’s the reason why we can use them, but I know there is a lot more to come.”
Koumetio was 18 years and 25 days old then and is now 21. He has not played for the Reds since being taken off at half-time in a Carabao Cup win over Leicester in December 2021. That was just his second first-team appearance for the club.
Spells on loan at Austria Wien and USL Dunkerque have since gone rather unsuccessfully. He played 15 times for Wien but featured in only five of their 16 Austrian Bundesliga matches, amassing a mere 325 minutes (the equivalent of 3.6 full games).
Wien sporting director Manuel Ortlechner said of the towering Frenchman: “We still think he is an incredibly exciting player; he can have an exciting career.” But Koumetio was recalled in January 12 months ago and spent the rest of the 2022-23 season with the under-21s, even earning the goal of the season award for a Xabi Alonso-like strike from the halfway line.
He was then loaned out to French second-tier team Dunkerque for this season. After being sent off 52 minutes into his debut for two yellow cards, he would play just eight more times for the Ligue 2 team despite them sitting bottom of the table. Most of those matches came in a left-back role, too, rather than at centre-half.
Liverpool confirmed this week that Koumetio has been recalled. And it leaves the France youth international, under contract until 2025, at a crossroads. The hype around him has faded with Jarell Quansah, a year younger than him, having soared up the pecking order at Anfield.
Right now, even with Joel Matip out injured, Klopp would go to Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Quansah, Joe Gomez or Nat Phillips – himself back at Liverpool after a disappointing loan – before selecting Koumetio for a senior match.
There’s no room in the first-team squad for Koumetio and he faces a fight to convince Klopp he still has a long-term future on Merseyside. That is despite the history-making player – who the Liverpool boss nicknamed ‘Billy the kid’ – having been billed a “big talent” by the German just a few years ago.
Koumetio is so young that he was actually a ball boy when Liverpool defeated Barcelona 4-0 in their iconic Champions League semi-final comeback in 2019. He revealed: “It was [blows cheeks]… amazing, unbelievable. I could see the big boys, the big players, in front of me.
“It was a great experience for me. That drives me a lot. When I was sitting so close to the pitch and saw the big boys, they really inspired me. I was motivated to work really hard and [in order] to go to that level.”
The pressure is well and truly on if he wants to realise that dream at Liverpool. Unless he can go on loan for the second half of this season and make a massive impression, sadly a permanent transfer exit looks likelier than not, either this summer or next.
