:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/46634026/GettyImages-152168214.0.jpg)
Liverpool appear set to sign 16-year-old Barcelona and PSV starlet Bobby Adekayne. The young winger had spent the season on loan with PSV after UEFA ruled that Barcelona had signed him illegally as a 12-year-old and he could not train or play at La Masia as part of the Catalan club’s youth set-up. That ruling hadn’t voided his contract, though, and so he was sent to train with the PSV youth.
Adekayne, who has played primarily as a left winger, was born in Nigeria but raised in the Netherlands and holds a Dutch passport. Despite the disagreement with UEFA over his signing, it had been hoped by the player and his family that a resolution could be found so that he could sign a new contract with Barcelona and move there this summer having turned 16, but with the situation still up in the air they began to look elsewhere.
PSV had signalled a desire to keep him at the club, and Ajax—who Barcelona signed him from four years ago—also offered the player a new contract. In the end, though, Liverpool have reportedly won out, and as reported by multiple sources in Belgium and since confirmed by the Liverpool Echo, the player will be joining Liverpool in the coming weeks, though by all accounts he is a few years from being ready to make a first team impact.
