Who is Kaide Gordon? Liverpool starlet makes debut in Carabao Cup against Norwich City
The 16-year-old joined Liverpool earlier this year and is set to make his debut tonight
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Your support makes all the difference.Kaide Gordon will make his full Liverpool debut tonight after being named in the club’s starting line-up against Norwich in the third round of the Carabao Cup.
The 16-year-old forward has trained with the Liverpool first team since being invited on their pre-season tour this summer, where he caught the eye of manager Jurgen Klopp.
Gordon joined the Premier League side from Derby in February after making his debut for Wayne Rooney’s side as a 15-year-old in the Championship.
FOLLOW LIVE: Norwich vs Liverpool
The England youth international was signed for a reported fee of £1.1 million, which could rise to £3.4 million based on performance-related add-ons.
Manchester United were also interested in the teenager, who turns 17 on 5 October, but Liverpool won the race for his signature.
Gordon is the latest youth product to emerge from Liverpool’s academy, following the likes of Harvey Elliot and Curtis Jones in recent years.
The left-footed Gordon prefers to operate on the right wing and likes to cut inside and shoot at goal. He has made three Premier League 2 appearances for Liverpool’s U23s this campaign, scoring two goals.
It was Liverpool assistant manager Pep Lijnders who urged Klopp to bring Gordon into the first-team fold, where he has been mentored by Trent Alexander-Arnold and James Milner.
“I saw one player and he has fire in each moment that he touches the ball,” Lijnders said. “He passes players like they are not standing there. I called Jurgen [Klopp] immediately and was like, ‘Wow! We have a new player here’.”
“All our boys invited him in the group and that made it not easy, but it made it good for him to adapt to our team and our style. He is what you see a lot with these kinds of wingers, they can outplay, they can combine.
“But he has a goal in him and he has this natural ability to be in the box between the goalposts to score, even when a cross comes from the opposite side. Not many talents have that. They maybe have dribbling skills but they don’t have that desire to shoot, to come in the box, to score. He is a typical Liverpool winger because he has goals, he has speed.”
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