5 months ago
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Photo by Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images
U21 midfielder, Lewis Koumas earns his first senior call-up with Wales.
One of the biggest stories out of this season’s Liverpool FC experience was the emergence of a strong core of players from the Academy. With youth players like Stefan Bajcetic, Coaimhin Kelleher, Harvey Elliott, and Curtis Jones entering this season as locked-in senior team players, most folks expected a debut or two.
When all was said and done, Jurgen Klopp gave senior debuts to 8 Academy players this year. For folks like Jarell Quansah, it appears that the call-up is a permanent one, with the young defender looking to have cemented their place in the senior squad for the considerable future. For the others, what appeared to be a response to an injury crisis appears to be the path forward for a true breakthrough in the near future.
Among those names is Lewis Koumas, who saw their name picked during that run in the early part of 2024 when injuries were decimating the Liverpool squad. I can only speak for myself, but I didn’t know that Koumas might be among the players who were on any “Who to Watch” lists in terms of the Academy. So, his inclusion was a bit of a surprise.
But on the strength of those performances and the achievement of breaking through on a club as big as Liverpool, the Welsh international has just secured their first ever call-up to the senior national team at the tender age of 18. Appearing mostly in midfield for Klopp’s Reds, Koumas has also operated across the attacking band at youth level. That kind of positional flexibility, though, is something encouraged among Liverpool’s youth and will certainly serve him well.
Only time will tell if Koumas and the other youth become household names in the world of football. And given the nature of elite football, one wouldn’t be looked at differently if they’d suggest that the likelihood of any of the youth establishing themselves as first-team regulars for Liverpool would be even smaller.
But given the financial realities of the modern game and the limited resources of FSG in comparison to the competition, one must believe that an academy system that similarly punches above its weight will only be a boon to keeping up with the giants in the game. To that end, the continued success of players like Koumas certainly is tied to the continued success of Liverpool. Here’s hoping to many more milestones for him and our other Class of 2024 lads!
