Billy Koumetio‘s loan spell at Austria Wien is to be cut short by Liverpool this month – after he became a regular for the Vienna club’s reserve side not the first team.
The 20-year-old made the move to Austria in the summer in search of valuable senior experience, having become a regular in training under Jurgen Klopp.
The loan move has not played out how Liverpool nor Koumetio will have envisioned, with just 11 first-team appearances, amounting to 712 minutes – his last outing came in early November.
Of those 11 games, seven were as part of the starting XI. Now, having seen more game time of late with Wien’s reserve team in the second division, Liverpool have stepped in.
At the presentation of Wien’s new manager, Michael Wimmer, their sports director Manuel Ortlechner confirmed on Tuesday that the Reds have signalled their intent to end the loan in January.
“We are in close contact and I have a phone call to Liverpool later because they would like to bring Koumetio back,” Ortlechner said, via Sky Sports Austria.
“We still think this is an incredibly exciting player. He can have a really exciting career. But Liverpool want to bring him back now, they have the right.
“We still have to clarify everything in the end, but 99 percent of the time Billy Koumetio will no longer play for Austria Wien.”
The club will not have been eager to see Koumetio continue down the pathway of Wien’s reserve side when they can oversee his development with the under-23s or with a different loan move.
Back in December, Koumetio spoke of how influential Jurgen Klopp was in his decision to make a temporary switch this season.
“The gaffer said to me it would be perfect and the best choice,” Koumetio said. “He actually said to me he would prefer this.
“Obviously I had a choice but at the end of the day, Liverpool can say yes or no, but the gaffer said it would be perfect for me so I took his big, big, big opinion, his big voice and his big vision.”
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