Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp is keen to see more local players follow in the footsteps of scouse legends Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher and represent the club, the Daily Mail reports.
Local lad Curtis Jones is the latest scouser to impress Klopp during the club’s pre-season games after Trent Alexander-Arnold established himself as the Red’s first choice right-back last season.
Jones, who is just 17, only signed his first professional contract with the club back in February.
A versatile midfielder, the youngster made appearances in friendlies against Tranmere Rovers, Bury and Blackburn Rovers. The 17-year-old was then included in the squad for their USA tour.
Jones started the International Champions Cup matches against Borussia Dortmund and Manchester City and also featured for the final 25 minutes of Liverpool’s 4-1 thrashing of Manchester United.
The youngster began training with the Red’s first-team last season, making his first appearance on the substitutes bench for Liverpool against Everton in April.
Klopp is hoping that Jones can be the next local boy to rise to prominence with the club and told Goal that he is excited by the prospect of Liverpool producing more local talent.
I love it, I love it! It’s important for this club.
If you have the chance, then you should do it. How many people live in Liverpool – 500,000? Iceland has 330,000, I think, so Liverpool should have enough people to create our own team.
But of course, the more the better. With Stevie and Carra, it was great to have those kind of boys come through, really cool.
We will see with Curtis, there is still a long way to go but the first signs are really positive. He’s a good player, he can be very good, we will see.
It’s always this little plus if they come from Liverpool. If I have two players, same quality, but one speaks proper English and the other one speaks Scouse, the Scouser is in! That’s why we are Liverpool.
