Youngster Rio Ngumoha has matched Wayne Rooney’s Premier League record. At just 16 years and 361 days old, Liverpool’s teenage sensation became the club’s youngest-ever goalscorer, the fourth-youngest in Premier League history, and the second-youngest to net a match-winning goal.
His dramatic debut drew instant comparisons with Wayne Rooney’s unforgettable introduction more than two decades ago.
Rio Ngumoha, but of Nigerian descent, now carries both heritage and hype as he steps into the spotlight.
The winger’s milestone places him in distinguished company. Only James Vaughan, James Milner, and Rooney himself scored at a younger age in England’s top flight.
Notably, Ngumoha was just one day older than Rooney when he opened his own account for Everton against Arsenal in 2002. Like Rooney, Ngumoha’s effort secured all three points and carried the same technical elegance — a composed inside-foot finish that belied his youth.
Even more remarkable was the stage. This was Ngumoha’s first-ever Premier League appearance. Introduced in the dying minutes, he needed only four touches to transform a frantic Liverpool attack into a decisive goal, sparking wild celebrations among the away supporters and marking himself as the newest jewel in the Reds’ crown.
The comparisons to Rooney are inevitable, but Ngumoha’s emergence comes in a different footballing climate. With Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal already a teenage frontrunner for the Ballon d’Or, the Liverpool starlet joins a new generation rewriting records before adulthood.
