Liverpool widens international academy recruitment as talent pool needs rebuilding
BBC Sport reports the club is targeting young players overseas as it seeks to strengthen its academy and develop prospects for the first team.
Liverpool is expanding its international recruitment of young players after selling significant youth talent in recent years. BBC Sport reports the club has raised more than £230 million since 2020 from sales of players who represented it at youth level, with proceeds reinvested under Fenway Sports Group’s self-sustaining model.
The club’s global talent department, led by Matt Newberry since winter 2024, identifies overseas prospects. Academy director Alex Inglethorpe told BBC Sport that Brexit has increased the premium on young English players, while transfer rules restrict international moves for under-18s and prevent Premier League clubs signing under-18s from European countries.
Senegalese defender Mor Talla Ndiaye joined Liverpool in January for a reported £1 million plus add-ons, after scouts watched him at the U17 World Cup. He has trained with the first team and was an unused substitute in three matches last season, BBC Sport reports.
Liverpool also made a reported £2.6 million move for Austrian centre-back Ifeanyi Ndukwe, who has joined Levante on loan while seeking a UK work permit. Colombian midfielder Samuel Martinez is due to join next summer, while Belgian goalkeeper Lucca Brughmans and French forward Djylian N’Guessan are set to arrive permanently in 2027.
The recruitment has not secured every target: Arsenal beat Liverpool to Georgian prospect Andria Bartishvili, who is due to join the London club next summer. The reported fees and future moves reflect the arrangements described by BBC Sport.
