Rio Ngumoha interview: Liverpool youngster on Chelsea exit, Max Dowman and how Lamine Yamal changed the game

Rio Ngumoha wears a cheeky smile as he sits in his England puffer jacket at Hotspur Way and discusses his upbringing, his hopes and dreams, and the lasting legacy of a fellow teenager.Ngumoha, 18, is just a year younger than the Barcelona sensation Lamine Yamal and argues: “What he is doing [has] changed football for young players.“Seeing what he can do so young inspires me and all the other young players in how we can just play freely. The way he plays, it’s like it’s his pitch. It’s a good challenge.”Tuchel has a glint in his eye whenever he speaks about Ngumoha and from the sidelines when the teen is readying himself to come on, you can tell they share a bond.“He knows I’m quite talented, which is good,” he says. “Every time I come on he lets me be expressive, be free. I have the belief from him.”Rio Ngumoha is looking to add to his three senior England capsAFP/GettyPlaying under Tuchel for England and Andoni Iraola for Liverpool are “similar” but their “language is a bit different”, he says, explaining that at England “it is a lot more structured, because you know the manager doesn't have enough time to get his ideas across — so that's why we have a lot more meetings, which is understandable.“It was definitely difficult at the start when he [Iraola] came in [at Liverpool], but we had to adapt quickly.”Ngumoha says he has played “a couple of times” against English football’s other talked-about wonderkid, Arsenal’s Max Dowman, but believes he has “played more with him than against him. Max is a top, top, top talent, a top player, and he'll definitely go on to reach many heights. We text each other if [one of us] scores.”Read More“Neymar, Eden Hazard, Mo Salah.” These are the names Ngumoha reels off when asked who he looked up to as a kid, adding: “Raheem Sterling pulled me to the side a couple of times and told me he could see I had talent but should never zone out in the game and should always be in the game.”Raheem Sterling pulled me to the side a couple of times and told me he could see I had talent but should never zone out in the game and should always be in the gameRio NgumohaNgumoha grew up in Manor Park, a “tough area, Newham especially” but recalls playing football in “Wanstead flats, Mabley Green, Power League, Beckton, all of these places”.He remembers his brother James, now his agent, pushing him to train after school even when he didn’t want to, and “sometimes going from school to get the train [to Chelsea academy training] was a bit tough, especially coming back late around like 11pm for a school kid, it isn't easy, but that's a sacrifice you've got to make sometimes to reach the top”.“I needed a new challenge,” Ngumoha explains now. “I feel like if I stayed at Chelsea... not saying I wouldn't have got to the first team as quickly, because I believe in my ability, but I feel 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.”Three months after his move to Liverpool, Ngumoha’s mother, Liz, left her job at a school in London and relocated to Liverpool where she “does everything for me and my brother. She’s just amazing. I can’t thank her enough.”