Liverpool wonderkid Kaide Gordon has signed his first professional contract with the club.
The winger, who made his senior Reds debut in the Carabao Cup win at Norwich last month, has committed his future after celebrating his 17th birthday earlier this week.
Gordon moved to Anfield from Championship club Derby back in January, and is tipped as a star of the future having impressed as part of Jurgen Klopp’s first-team squad during their pre-season training camps in Austria and France.
What has Klopp said about Gordon?
Gordon was one of three Liverpool debutants in that League Cup tie at Norwich, with full-back Conor Bradley and midfielder Tyler Morton also given chances.
Speaking afterwards, Klopp spoke highly of the teenage starlet.
He said: “Kaide is good, and has a lot of things to improve, a lot of things to settle, a lot of things to learn, but a lot of things are already there.
“We are really happy to have him around and we will treat him carefully. I’m really happy that he is here, he is a big talent.
“The first thing that Kaide said to me after the game, when I wanted to say ‘congratulations’, he said ‘thank you!’.
“But there was nothing to be thankful about, he deserved it. It’s all fine, these boys are good and thank God they are ours.”
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Who else has spoken about Gordon?
Speaking ahead of the Norwich game, assistant manager Pep Lijnders also paid tribute to Gordon’s talent.
“About Kaide before pre-season we always make sure that our biggest talents start a week earlier than we start,” Lijnders said.
“They start with the U23s training and I went to the U23s training ground to watch and I see one player and he has fire in each moment he touched the ball.
“He passes players like they are not standing there so I call Jurgen like, “Wow, we have a new player here'.”
Lijnders added: “What you see a lot with these kinds of wingers, they can now play, they can combine.
“He has a goal in him and he has this natural ability to be in the box between the goalposts to score, even when the cross comes from the other side, and not many talents have that.
“They maybe have dribbling skills but they don’t have this desire to shoot and come in the box to score.
“He is a typical Liverpool Football Club winger in my opinion because he has goals, he has speed. We really like him and we’re really happy he’s with us.”
Gomez said: “The biggest thing about Kaide is that he seems to have such an old head on his shoulders. And that level-headed mindset keeps him in his place.
“His ability speaks for itself, but he’s such a nice guy. In pre-season, he took everything in his stride.
“Every time he trains with us he applies himself properly. He does extra things that wouldn’t even have crossed my mind when I was his age. Hats off to him, and I’m sure he can go on to have a great career.
“The platform he has, there’s no ceiling to it.”
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