Liverpool's scouts have tracked the England youth international for some time and in July, agreed a deal for him to move from Stamford Bridge for Anfield. On Thursday, he took to Instagram to officially confirm his departure from Chelsea: "Thank you for everything Chelsea Academy," wrote Ngumoha, who trained with the club's first team earlier this year.
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As he rejected Chelsea's scholarship offer, the Londoners will be entitled to a compensation fee from Liverpool for the forward. It's expected Ngumoha will be blooded into the Under-18s setup with Marc Bridge-Wilkinson for the coming campaign before being assessed for a potential call-up to the U21s and Liverpool are delighted at managing to bring the 16-year-old to their thriving Kirkby base.
Club scouts have been hugely impressed with the skilful winger during checks and after listening to the enticing pitch laid out by Liverpool, Ngumoha is now on the cusp of moving to Merseyside. It's believed Chelsea are furious with how Ngumoha has been allowed to leave for what will be a nominal fee, although suggestions Liverpool have broken their wage structure to land the winger have been rubbished.
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It's understood the arrival of Ngumoha is in keeping with existing policies that are strictly set out by long-serving Academy director Alex Inglethorpe and the youngster will be on a scholarship wage at Kirkby once he officially becomes a Reds player. The club's recent track of blooding players from their academy ranks into the first-team is understood to have been key to the decision over the move with the 2024 Carabao Cup final cited as the perfect example of the two contrasting strategies at both clubs.
Liverpool won the game at Wembley 1-0 thanks to Virgil van Dijk's extra-time header but finished the match with James McConnell, Bobby Clark and Jayden Danns all on the pitch and they were also able to name Caoimhin Kelleher, Jarell Quansah, Conor Bradley and Harvey Elliott in the team on the day, four players who all sharpened their skills in the youth ranks at Anfield.
Liverpool have been keen to pursue the best young talents across the country since the introduction of laws that came off the back of the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union at the end of 2020, which made signings from the continent more difficult.
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