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Liverpool’s prodigy Rio Ngumoha wins Premier League major award
13th May, 2026 04:46 PM
Liverpool pacey winger Rio Ngumoha scooped up two prizes at the Premier League Youth Development Conference on Tuesday evening, May 12, 2026. The 17-year-old received the Premier League Home Grown Debutant of the Season accolade on a joint basis alongside Arsenal’s Max Dowman.
The attacker was also one of 27 players to earn a Scholar of the Year award. To date, Ngumoha has made 17 Premier League appearances in 2025-26 and scored two goals, the first of which was a late winner away at Newcastle United on his top-flight debut.
Chelsea outing
Ngumoha was handed a starting berth manager Arne Slot as the Reds shared the points with the Blues in the Premier League in the previous outing. Ryan Gravenberch’s opening goal was cancelled out by Enzo Fernandez at Anfield. Ngumoha picked up the pieces of a Dominik Szoboszlai free-kick that had been blocked and shifted the ball on to the opening goalscorer.
Liverpool’s struggles
Meanwhile, club legend Jamie Carragher is worried about where Liverpool are heading under Arne Slot, questioning what the identity of his team is, while the Reds’ boss said his side has had a “whole season” of decisions going against them.
Liverpool were beaten 3-2 by Manchester United prior to the Chelsea outing as Slot’s team remain with work to do to qualify for the Champions League. Slot also has work to do to persuade fans he is the man to lead them next season.
Former Liverpool defender Carragher is struggling to see how Arne Slot can fix the situation. He said, “Am I worried about where Liverpool are going? Yeah, I am.
Interesting times
“I think it will be really interesting to see who Liverpool buys in the summer and what the profile of the player will be. Going for just good players hasn’t worked; it’s blown up in their face. There’s a lack of physicality,” he said.
“We’re in a situation now where we look at the teams who are looking for a manager: Real Madrid, Manchester United, and Chelsea. Those three clubs we just mentioned sacked their managers midway through the season. They ended up with [Alvaro] Arbeloa, who’d never managed before, [Michael] Carrick, who had been at Middlesbrough; and young [Liam] Rosenior, which was too big a jump.”
