Liverpool keen on transfer deal for Sunderland AFC player | OneFootball

17-year-old Trey Ogunsuyi has featured heavily for Sunderland's U18s and U21 sides, garnering Premier League interest.

Liverpool are keen on raiding Championship high-flyers Sunderland for starlet striker Trey Samuel-Ogunsuyi.

That is according to the Sunderland Echo, who claim that the 17-year-old is in-demand in the top flight of English football due to his current form at developmental level.

Sunderland are beginning to make a name for themselves as the best nurturers of teenage talent in the EFL.

While Chris Rigg (17) and Jobe Bellingham (19) will undoubtedly grab the lion's share of transfer speculation this winter, they may even be poached of a prospect who is yet to make his first-team debut.

The Belgian Under-19 international has turned plenty of heads this campaign, so far recording a goal ratio that exceeds one-per-game.

Having scored against both of Liverpool's under-18's and under-21's this campaign, his performances look to have prompted strong recommendations from the coaching staff.

Trey Samuel-Ogunsuyi's contract situation at Sunderland

There is little information available as to exactly when Ogunsuyi joined the Wearside club. However, it is clear that his development has been yet another success story of the director-academy duo Kristjaan Speakman and Robin Nicholls, who together have completely revitalised the club's youth intake.

The versatile striker made his Sunderland under-18's debut in February 2024, aged just 16 and one month.

Since then, he has gone on to establish himself as a mainstay in their Premier League 2 side, including crucial contributions on their route to last year's competition final.

This stunning progression, while admittedly overshadowed by that of Chris Rigg, six months his junior, rightfully earned the Belgian a first professional contract earlier this year.

The two-year deal, signed in February this year, sees him theoretically remain at the Academy of Light, and beyond, until 2026.

Regis Le Bris integrating Ogunsuyi into first-team squad could see him stay at Sunderland

Sunderland manager Régis Le Bris is clearly a man who believes the old adage 'if you're good enough, you're old enough'.

Despite still clinging onto their place at the top of the Championship table, the North East side remain far-and-away the youngest side in the league on average.

Aside from the obvious duo of Bellingham and Rigg, the Frenchman has granted Championship game-time to fellow teenagers Tom Watson, Milan Aleksic and Eliezer Mayenda.

As Ogunsuyi is one of the Black Cats' most highly rated prospects yet to make his first-team debut, this suggests a very real possibility of future minutes, especially considering he has now been in three first team matchday squads.

The Belgian featured as an unused substitute in successive first team games in September, against Plymouth and Middlesbrough.

Absent for the next nine, he finally reappeared on the team sheet for Saturday's match away at Millwall, although he again failed to leave the bench.

With goals drying up for the Mackems, it is reasonable to suggest that the raw talents possessed by Samuel-Ogunsuyi will be deployed sooner rather than later, and especially if he keeps on showing form at a lower level.

WIth this in mind, unless the fee presented by Liverpool is simply too good to turn down, it would seem foolish for the Championship leaders to lose their best-kept secret before he's even begun, while from the players point of view, although training at Melwood must be tempting, it would be a bizarre decision to leave the club that best integrate young talents of late.

Le Bris having the striker around the first-team more often may also convince Ogunsuyi to stay at the Stadium of Light should Liverpool table a bid - they are a massive, head-turning club, but Sunderland are also a category one academy and a club on the up in their own right, so there may be a lot to ponder come January.