Jurgen Klopp favourite Ki-Jana Hoever is highly-rated at Anfield – but he’s still been omitted from their 29-man Champions League squad.
It says a lot about Ki-Jana Hoever that, even at just 17 years old, Liverpool fans thought he was guaranteed a place in Jurgen Klopp’s Champions League squad.
One of the worst held secrets in European football is out with a dazzling young defender who left Ajax for Merseyside last year rapidly emerging as Liverpool’s next superstar-in-the-making.
The versatile defender made his senior bow with a typically accomplished display in January’s FA Cup defeat to Wolves, becoming the third youngest player ever to represent the six-time European champions in the process. Klopp even called him a ‘fantastic footballer’ as recently as August.
So the young Dutchman’s omission from Liverpool’s 29-man Champions League squad has certainly caught the Anfield faithful by surprise.
While Hoever has been left out, another 17-year-old centre-back Sepp Van den Berg has been included despite only arriving in England from PEC Zwolle over the summer. Rhian Brewster, Curtis Jones, Yasser Larouci, Adam Lewis and Herbie Kane are also in.
Maybe Klopp wants to keep Hoever’s feet on the ground. Perhaps he feels the teenager would benefit more from playing regularly in the prestigious UEFA Youth League.
For now, however, this is a bit of a mystery.
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