From crying kid to Ballon d'Or hopeful: How fearless Rio Ngumoha toughened up, via quitting Chelsea for Liverpool at just 15 and being shielded from 'crime and stuff' in East London

Rio Ngumoha is back in with the older boys, only this time there are no tears.It is hard to believe the Liverpool and England winger could ever feel intimidated on a football pitch, given his talent was so apparent at the age of six that his older brother, James, gave up school to coach him.Ngumoha can smile about the tears now, for sitting here at 18 years old as a full international on the verge of his first Three Lions start is a happy ending.'I was six, maybe only five, playing for a local team,' he recalls, holding court with journalists at England's base of the Tottenham Hotspur training ground. 'I got an assist and I could hear my mum on the side saying, "Well done". Then I heard them saying that I was playing with older boys, and I just panicked. I started crying and walked off the pitch. I was so scared because everyone was older than me.'Ngumoha is the youngest player in Thomas Tuchel's 26-man squad for this week's Nations League matches against Croatia and Spain. Harry Kane is 15 years his senior.'After that game, I realised I could have definitely competed with them,' he adds. 'So yeah, I've toughened up a bit.' Rio Ngumoha is the youngest player in the England squad after years of 'toughening up'Ngumoha quit Chelsea for Liverpool because he says: 'I felt like I needed a new challenge'Tougher, wiser and, what becomes clear when talk turns to Kane's Ballon d'Or, is that Ngumoha has grown in confidence, too. So confident, in fact, that not only does he want one of his own, he believes the game's ultimate individual honour is not beyond his reach.The question was put to him, admittedly, but he took it and ran with it, much like he does the football.'Harry Kane winning the Ballon d'Or is a big, big thing,' says Ngumoha, in keeping with his generation's fascination with the prize. 'Being known as the best player in the world… I would like to achieve it, and I think I can do it.'A misplaced belief after less than 20 senior starts? You would ordinarily argue so, but Ngumoha's talent appears so rare that it's better to imagine where it could go, not where it cannot. I was there in Tampa in the summer when, then 17, he played the second half of England's 1-0 World Cup warm-up win over New Zealand. Come the end, he had been the best winger on the pitch. We wondered then if there was still a way into the squad for a player only in the States to train at the Florida pre-camp.'I knew before going to the camp that I couldn't go to the World Cup anyway,' - it turns out he was not on the provisional 55-man list - says Ngumoha. 'So I just chose the pre-camp to prove myself, to be free, to play with some expression. I did that and I made a good impression.'He achieved that on his debut in Tampa by beating his man, and the man after that, too. I put it to him that dribbling is a lost art.'I feel like I'm quite fearless,' he says, after nodding in agreement. 'If there's an opportunity to beat my man, I'll always do it. It was the way I grew up, really, playing in cages near my house. Even at Chelsea, sometimes, they just let me play free. Then when I moved to Liverpool, I've never really been told to stop. I like exciting people. I like getting people off their seat.' Ngumoha shows a quiet maturity and has been starring in the Premier League for LiverpoolTo recap, Ngumoha was raised in East London by his mother and brother. He reveals that, through football, they shielded him from 'crime and stuff'. Football was 'an escape route'. He played for Chelsea's academy from the age of eight but left at 15 to join Liverpool. Why?'I felt like I needed a new challenge,' he says. 'Like if I had stayed at Chelsea... I'm not saying that I wouldn't have got to the first-team as quick, because I believe in my ability, but I feel like Liverpool just gave me a new pathway.'The plan they set for me was straightforward. For me, it was a no-brainer going to Liverpool. They just said, if I prove myself, because they knew how much ability I had, they knew that I would definitely be a first-team player and a star-in-the-making for them. It has been the right choice so far.'For one so young, there is quiet maturity to Ngumoha, one that means FA staff have permitted this interview. Often, the fledglings are kept closer to the nest. But then, there is a reminder of his youthful innocence.'Nando's is still my fantasy meal,' he says. 'I get sweet potatoes, four boneless thighs, peri-tamer, some garlic bread. They need to give me a little sponsorship, the Nando's Black Card!'The exclusive card he mentions gives the holder and up to four guests complimentary food for one year. The career that awaits Ngumoha means free chicken should be the least of his rewards. The boy who once cried when he discovered he was playing with the big boys believes that, one day, he can be the biggest of them all.