00:00Rio Ngomoua is a first-team squad option for Premier League Champions Liverpool
00:04and he's only just turned 17.
00:06Welcome to a new 4-4-2 series.
00:08The boys are a bit special.
00:09What a moment! What a moment!
00:28Rio, as he likes to be known, swapped Chelsea's academy for Liverpool shortly after his 16th birthday,
00:34already dubbed one of English football's rising stars.
00:36It was a bold move considering how renowned the Blues-Cobham set-up is, having produced a whole host of England internationals in recent times.
00:43But Rio backed himself and within months of arriving at Liverpool, he became involved in senior training,
00:48even appearing on the substitutes bench for a League Cup tie against Southampton.
00:52Before long, he was named in the starting line-up as Liverpool boss Honour Slott selected him to play against Accrington Stanley in the FA Cup,
00:59before featuring and scoring at Anfield during pre-season.
01:03And the buzz as Ngomoua gets the ball and runs!
01:07Oh my goodness me! Is there anything he can't do?
01:11But it was in the 100th minute at St James' Park back in August when Rio, still 16 at the time, well and truly arrived on the scene.
01:18Mo Salah's ball across the Newcastle box was dummied by Dominic Sobberslay for the teenage forward to stroke past Nick Pope,
01:25with the surety and precision of the man who set him up.
01:28Listed as a right-footed left winger, Rio is a straight-line attacker, and by that I mean he goes for goal.
01:34Comfortable on both feet, a fearless dribbler who'll run at his man, leaving defenders' legs in a tangle.
01:39He's like a bowling ball making light work of remaining pins.
01:42Rio has bamboozled youth team defences throughout his admittedly brief youth football career,
01:47because, of course, opponents find the only way to effectively try and stop him is to double and triple up on him.
01:53While there's fluidity to his game that really belies his years, Rio's dribbling style is more jagged, perhaps more unpredictable.
01:59He boasts good acceleration and strength for his size, and technically is no match for the majority of his age mates.
02:06And that's exactly why he was named in Liverpool's Champions League squad this season, at the first time of asking.
02:11Slott clearly trusts in his ability to deliver during brief cameo appearances, and he's demonstrated exactly that so far.
02:18As the season goes on, his minutes and exposure will be managed, as they should, for a player so young and still developing.
02:24But there's little stopping the youngest Premier League goalscorer for 20 years going right to the top.
02:29He's seemingly leapfrogged Italy international Federico Chiesa in the Liverpool pecking order,
02:34and there's even been suggestions that Cody Gakpo's spot on the left-hand side could come under threat
02:39if Rio continues to impress.
02:42In 12 months' time, we might even be talking about the 18-year-old who starts on the wing for the back-to-back Premier League champs.
02:48Into Premier League action is Max Daumann. Everyone here is talking about him right now.
02:54Max Daumann was fouled nine times during one half of an England under-19s fixture earlier this season.
03:00Seven of which were by the same Spanish full-back.
03:03By foul four or five, it was clear they weren't even trying to disguise their attempts at thwarting Daumann illegally anymore.
03:09Also, it's worth mentioning, he's 15.
03:11Well done, he's 13.
03:13He turned 16 on New Year's Eve, and should he appear in the Champions League before then,
03:17would become the youngest ever competitor in Europe's Premier Club competition.
03:21Daumann was playing under-18s football at 13, and under-19s football in official UEFA competitions at 14.
03:27He made his Premier League debut at 15, winning the Gunners a penalty against Leeds within his first 30 minutes on the pitch.
03:41The fact Daumann is reaching these milestones whilst representing a club with a talent pool and resource like Arsenal
03:46is the greatest endorsement of the teenager's undeniable skill.
03:49He's confident, athletic and capable, which is a winning combination for any attacker.
03:54Daumann is a duck and weave player, dodging challenges as best he can while making a beeline for the byline.
03:59The second point is an important one to make because Daumann hasn't always been a right winger,
04:04which is where he's getting minutes under Mikel Arteta.
04:07At younger age groups, he's been more of a number 10, but his skillset is indisputably wingery,
04:12cutting in off the right and putting his preferred left foot to very, very good use.
04:16From an output perspective, Daumann has 20 goals and 10 assists in 25 appearances for Arsenal's 18s.
04:21He isn't just an athlete who can run and run at defences with little to show for it when it matters most.
04:27He's a footballer.
04:28And what about his record for the 21s?
04:30Does it translate?
04:31In all honesty, no.
04:32Because he's skipped the age group altogether and he's already regarded a first-team player,
04:37named in Arsenal's Champions League squad and regularly featuring on the bench.
04:41Despite the fact development is not linear and there are many hurdles for Daumann still to clear,
04:46provided he stays injury-free we can say quite confidently that the first team is where he's going to stay for the foreseeable.
04:52The pass from 17-year-old Bouadi was extraordinary.
04:56In this age of footballers spending almost the entirety of their formative years within indulgent and often overprotective academy surroundings,
05:04it's enriching and encouraging to discover a player who did not, whose talent surpasses the majority of those who did.
05:10Ayub Bouadi didn't join Lille's academy until the age of 14, which in elite footballing terms is pretty late.
05:16It's even more remarkable to consider he was starting semi-regularly for Lille shortly after his 16th birthday,
05:22playing with the self-assurance and confidence of a much, much more experienced pro.
05:26A useful bellwether I find for young players is assessing not how much they get right but how little they get wrong
05:32and Bouadi's accuracy in his passing, positioning and receiving the ball is a great big tick in the 18-year-old midfielder's box.
05:39It mustn't be overlooked either how Bouadi is more robust on the floor than most central midfielders, never mind players of a similar age to him.
05:46He's a big-bodied ball carrier in the middle of the park, covers lots of ground in short bursts and beats the first line of a press
05:52with his ability to create separations from opponents, leveraging that athletic frame of his to great effect.
05:57So far, he's earned his spurs in a possession-heavy Lille side, so he's seeing plenty of the ball and getting a good feel for the pressures of the professional game.
06:05Not that it appears to bother him in the slightest.
06:07Bouadi is less adventurous than many of the more attacking players who will feature in the boys a bit special,
06:12but his function is a crucial one to how any team operates.
06:15In terms of up-and-coming number sixes or number eights across world football,
06:19there are few as accomplished on the field as Bouadi, and few who appear as capable of making the jump to a higher level.
06:25Lille have sustained their model and prolonged European participation through the sale of important players for huge fees over the years.
06:32Nicola Pepe, Victor Ossiman, Lenny Jouro and Raphael Leao are among them.
06:36Ayu Bouadi will be next.
06:38Tyler Dibbling, more like Tyler Dribbling.
06:47Landing Dibbling this summer was perhaps Everton's second best transfer in recent times, after Jack Grealish on a season-long loan of course.
06:54The 19-year-old has had his fair share of clubs already, including a brief spell at Chelsea's renowned Cobham Academy,
07:00but Southampton has always proven to be a safe space and ultimately the launchpad for his career.
07:05Even then, as an even younger teenager, it was clear Dibbling's talent would lead him to the Premier League,
07:09scoring hat-tricks of identical goals in PL2 matches against defenders many years his senior.
07:15Three mazy dribbles into the opposing half, followed by three cool finishes. It's what he does.
07:20The Everton teenager has an excellent command of the ball, not breaking strides, smoothly moving through the gears
07:25with a frame that suggests he should be stoppable, but often isn't.
07:29Give Tyler the ball and get your rest.
07:31That may as well have been Ivan Juric's instruction to his players when the Southampton team were already several goals down in many cases.
07:38Dibbling featured in over 2,000 minutes of senior football for that doomed Southampton side last season,
07:43making 33 Premier League appearances, which is pretty out of the ordinary in any top 5 European league,
07:49never mind the most physically demanding one.
07:51At Everton, he's going to learn from the best, and I don't mean to suggest David Moyes was a marauding winger back in his day.
07:57I'm talking about Jack Grealish.
07:59His breakthrough at Aston Villa saw the Brummie Beckham hacked and chopped up by Premier League defences,
08:04so much so that only Wilfred Zaha really rivals the England international for fouls won over the past decade.
08:10Dibbling, in this case, is the young pretender, if you will.
08:13I also expect Dibbling to become a key player for this new cohort of England under-21s too,
08:18because many of their established wingers have already outgrown the age group.
08:21He's got a long way to go before senior international recognition,
08:24and will need to nail down a starting spot for Everton before that's a realistic possibility.
08:29But don't rule it out in years to come.
08:31The talent is there, the only thing Dibbling needs now is opportunity.
08:35Remember to let 442 know in the comments which teenagers we should be featuring in the next edition of the Boys A Bit Special.
08:41Bye for now.
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