Teenage midfielder Trey Nyoni trained with Liverpool’s first-team ahead of their Europa League game against Toulouse on Thursday.
Nyoni, 16, is a highly-rated young prospect who has featured for various England age-group teams and has starred for the Reds’ U18s side so far this season. He has scored in each of Liverpool’s last three U18 Premier League games and has now been rewarded with a chance to train alongside the likes of Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk.
However, he will not be able to feature against Toulouse having not been named in Liverpool’s Europa League squad last month. Players who were born on or after January 1, 2002 and have spent two uninterrupted years at the club are eligible for a list B spot, meaning they can also feature alongside the 23 players on Liverpool’s A list.
The likes of Harvey Elliot, Stefan Bajcetic and Jarell Quansah are among Liverpool’s list B players, but Nyoni is ineligible due to the fact he only joined the club from Leicester two months ago. As a result, he would have had to be included on Liverpool’s A list alongside fellow teenage prospect Ben Doak who signed from Celtic last year.
Nyoni joined Leicester’s academy at the age of six and helped England’s U16s win the Montaigu Tournament earlier this year, although he did not feature in the final as they beat Japan 3-2 on penalties.
Among his goals for Liverpool’s U18s was a 96th minute winner in a 2-1 victory over local rivals Everton. “He had a big smile on his face and he was buzzing,” U18s boss Marc Bridge-Wilkinson said.
“It was a nice moment for him and it was a lovely little finish. It was a really pleasing moment for Trey and it was a really pleasing moment for the team because I thought we deserved to win that game.”
Bridge-Wilkinson was also full of praise for the way Nyoni and fellow 16-year-old prospect Amara Nallo, who joined Liverpool from West Ham over the summer, have settled in. “They are both really good boys with really good attitudes,” he added.
“They obviously want to be professional footballers so they have come here with a real purpose as to why they are here. They have settled in with the other boys really well and fitted in well.
“They have settled in with the staff as well and been talking to all the staff, the whole Academy staff, brilliantly and they deserve a lot of credit for the way they have fitted in so well here. It’s been really pleasing to see them join us and then settle in so quickly.”
