The 17-year-old came off the bench for Liverpool’s first team in their 3-0 victory over Brighton in the FA Cup and briefly thought he had scored for the Kop when he fired past Jason Steele, but unfortunately the goal was disallowed for offside.
Replays showed it should have stood, and VAR was not in action to correct the mistake, with Arne Slot expressing his disagreement with the decision in his post-match press conference, although the teenage prodigy did not dwell on the disappointment.
Ngumoha scores world champion for Liverpool under 21
On Sunday afternoon, Ngumoha lined up for the Reds’ under-21s against their West Brom counterparts in Premier League 2, and the goal he scored to put his team 3-2 ahead shortly before half-time was a thing of beauty.
He collected a ball on the left flank from a pass from Trey Nyoni, burst into the penalty area and jinked past two opponents before crashing an unstoppable shot into the top corner of the visitors’ net, and there was the slightest thing that prevented that magnificent strike from counting on the scoreboard.
It also turned out to be an important moment, as Rob Page’s team eventually won 4-3 (via liverpoolfc.com).
Ngumoha already looks like an elite talent
With the utmost respect to the under-21s, even a hat-trick yesterday wouldn’t have meant as much to Ngumoha as a goal for the Kop in a league match just a few months after he turned 17.
Nevertheless, what happened on Saturday night does not detract from the excellence of the strike he produced in the win over West Brom, and any minutes he can get on the pitch at any level will benefit the teenager as he embarks on what has the hallmarks of an elite career.
It is also not the first time that he has done a double job in the same weekend. He followed up his appearance off the bench in our 3-2 Premier League defeat to Bournemouth last month by being in the line-up for the under-21s against Leeds the following day.
Ngumoha has already shown glimpses of his outsize talent at senior level, with a confidence and dribbling ability that belies his younger years, and there have been calls for Slot to play him more often.
There has been an understandable reluctance on the part of the first-team head coach to expose the winger too much at such a sensitive stage of his football development, but everything we have seen from the 17-year-old so far suggests he is making the biggest leaps in his development.
Below you can watch Ngumoha’s goal for Liverpool Under 21, via mining academy on Instagram:
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