Journalist: Wonderkid will travel with Liverpool for USA pre-season tour | OneFootball

Joshua Abe on Liverpool’s USA Tour Could Be Pre-Season’s Biggest Story Under Andoni Iraola

Liverpool pre-season tours tend to do two things. They sharpen legs, and they introduce names that supporters suddenly cannot stop talking about. This summer, that name could be Joshua Abe.

According to Paul Gorst for the Liverpool Echo, the teenage winger is expected to be part of Liverpool’s squad for the club’s pre-season trip to the United States. That matters, not because friendlies should be overhyped, but because these tours are often where elite clubs first test whether academy promise can survive first-team speed.

Abe turns 16 later this month. Read that again. He is not merely young, he is at an age where most players are still being assessed for schoolboy potential. Yet Liverpool are prepared to take him into Andoni Iraola’s senior environment for matches against Sunderland, Wrexham and Leeds. Clubs do not do that for novelty value. They do it when they think there is something there.

Joshua Abe earns Liverpool chance

The context is straightforward. Several Liverpool players involved in the World Cup are due a delayed summer break, while some fringe first-team options and academy prospects now have a clear opening. This is where a new head coach learns quickly. Iraola will want intensity, attention, and players who can absorb instruction without fuss. Youngsters who travel are there to be watched closely, even if only for short minutes on the pitch.

Abe has already built a strong reputation inside the academy set-up. He became Liverpool’s youngest ever player at under-19 level in the UEFA Youth League earlier this year, and the club also secured an important win by convincing him to sign scholarship terms after interest from Manchester City. That detail matters. When City want a young player, and Liverpool keep him, it says plenty about how highly he is regarded.

Photo: IMAGO

There is also a familiar shape to this story. Last summer, Rio Ngumoha used pre-season to force his way into wider conversation, and he carried that momentum into a difficult 2025/26 campaign where very few Liverpool performances felt genuinely encouraging. The parallels are obvious. Same age bracket, same attacking profile, same chance to make a first impression away from the weekly pressure of competitive football.

Andoni Iraola and academy pathway

Iraola’s arrival adds another layer. He has a reputation for demanding football and for trusting players who show courage and tactical discipline. Young wingers tend to get noticed quickly under coaches like that. If you can beat a man, recover your position, and repeat the work, you have a chance.

Abe appears to fit the modern wide-player mould, direct, explosive, eager to attack defenders. Reports around the academy suggest he has been making youth football look easy, and that is always the first indicator. It proves nothing on its own, because youth dominance does not automatically translate to senior level, but it is a prerequisite. You cannot skip that part.

What Liverpool should want from this tour is clarity. Not hysteria, not coronation, just information. Can Abe cope physically? Can he execute instructions at senior tempo? Can he affect moments against grown opponents? Those are the real questions.

USA tour offers real opening

If he gets minutes in the United States, every touch will be analysed. That is normal at a club this size. It would still be wise to keep expectations under control. A strong pre-season cameo does not make a first-team regular, and one quiet outing does not change the talent level that got him on the plane in the first place.

Still, Liverpool supporters are entitled to be intrigued. Pre-season exists for players like Joshua Abe. In a squad missing some senior names, and with a new head coach establishing standards, the door is open. Sometimes that is all a gifted young winger needs.

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This is exactly the sort of update Liverpool fans want in July. New coach, fresh ideas, and a teenage talent getting a proper look with the senior squad. It is hard not to get excited about Joshua Abe when the noises around him are this strong and when Liverpool have clearly moved to protect him from rival interest.

The best part is that there seems to be a genuine pathway here. Under Iraola, energy and bravery should count for plenty, and Abe sounds like the kind of winger who will back himself. That is what supporters love, a player who wants the ball, drives at defenders and makes things happen.

No one sensible is saying he should be thrown straight into Premier League football, but pre-season is where belief starts to build. If he shows even flashes of what Ngumoha produced last summer, fans will be all in. Liverpool need more young players pushing through, especially after a bruising campaign that lacked spark for long stretches.

There is also something refreshing about the timing. With senior internationals away and places temporarily available, the message is simple, perform and you will be noticed. That should energise the whole academy. As for Abe, if he gets his chance in the USA, supporters will be watching every minute and hoping they are seeing the start of something special.