Liverpool were claimed to have signed 17-year-old Ghana attacker Abdul Fatawu Issahku in a deal worth £1.5 million, but it would appear that all is not as it seems.
Fatawu Issahku is set to leave Ghanaian second-tier club Steadfast FC this summer after making his breakthrough into the national team.
The 17-year-old was named Player of the Tournament at the Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations earlier this year, but is now a regular part of CK Akonnor’s senior squad.
This has led to a push to leave Steadfast FC and move to Europe, with it reported that Liverpool had beaten Bayer Leverkusen to a £1.5 million deal for the young forward.
It was then claimed that the Reds would loan Fatawu Issahaku to Sporting CP until he was eligible for the UK work permit, in a similar scenario to Nigerian striker Taiwo Awoniyi.
However, it was later reported that he had instead joined Sporting on a permanent deal, with Portuguese newspaper Record dismissing the suggestion of a loan.
There was confusion over the situation, then, which has now hopefully been cleared up as The Athletic’s James Pearce has relayed that Liverpool are “adamant they have no involvement and no commitment to take him in the future.”
Pearce reiterated that the player had instead joined Sporting CP, and replying to a comment on Twitter that insisted there was “more to it than this,” he stressed that the case was “100 percent clear.”
It would seem that Fatawu Issahaku’s representatives had used Liverpool as a negotiating tool, which reinforces the claim that Leverkusen had pulled out due to this very belief.
Liverpool have added to their academy with high-potential foreign talent in recent years, including Mateusz Musialowski, Melkamu Frauendorf, Fabian Mrozek and Stefan Bajcetic over the past 12 months, but now the rules have changed.
Post-Brexit, clubs in England are unable to sign overseas players until they are 18, which may force the Reds to scour the domestic market if they are to add to their youth ranks this summer.
Already this year the club has brought in 16-year-old Kaide Gordon from Derby and 15-year-old Calum Scanlon from Birmingham, and it is likely they are follow by more in the coming months.
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