Liverpool's Wonderkid Joshua Abe: A £50k-a-week Talent
Liverpool did not just win a transfer battle this summer. They dug in and kept hold of a teenager so coveted that a Premier League rival was prepared to throw senior-star money at him.
Joshua Abe, a winger who turns 16 on Friday, has already forced clubs to think – and spend – like it’s the finished article they’re buying, not a boy who has barely stepped beyond under-18s football.
A contract fight Liverpool could not afford to lose
In early June, Liverpool tied Abe down on scholarship terms, with a pre-contract agreement in place for a three-year professional deal that will kick in on his 17th birthday next year, as reported by The Athletic.
That alone would be routine academy business. The numbers around it are anything but.
According to Andy Jones of The Athletic, Abe “received significant interest from a host of Premier League clubs”, with one going as far as to offer him a professional contract worth up to £50,000 per week. Not a pathway promise. Not a performance-heavy package. A wage that sits alongside senior professionals.
He turned it down to stay at Liverpool.
For a player with just one appearance above under-18 level – a substitute outing for Rob Page’s under-19 side in the UEFA Youth League against Zilina in February – that figure is staggering. It tells you as much about the desperation of rivals to prise him away as it does about his talent.
A teenager treated like a first-teamer
Liverpool’s response has been clear: if others see a potential star, they will treat him like one.
Abe has been handed a first-team squad number for the 2026/27 campaign, another concrete sign, as Jones notes, of how highly he is regarded on Merseyside. He is also set to join Andoni Iraola’s first-team squad on their tour of the United States, stepping into a space opened up by senior players still on post-World Cup breaks.
That is not a token gesture. Pre-season tours are where managers test temperament as much as talent. Who trains with intensity every day? Who shrinks when the stadium lights come on in a foreign city? Who looks at home?
Abe will now get his answers in real time, in front of the staff who will shape his next few years.
The scale of the offer
To understand how wild that £50,000-a-week proposal was, you only need one comparison. Capology lists Wataru Endo – 33 years old, captain of Japan for several years, a player with hundreds of senior games behind him – on the same wage at Liverpool.
A teenager with one under-19 appearance being offered Endo money elsewhere? That is the market at its most aggressive, and it underlines just how big a coup it is for Liverpool to have held their ground.
Rivals will not forget this. If Abe develops as those scouts clearly expect, the same clubs will be back, only with bigger offers and more persuasive sporting projects. Liverpool have bought themselves time, not immunity.
The road ahead
For now, the path is clear. Abe is likely to taste first-team football in pre-season, training and possibly playing alongside established names. That exposure should accelerate his development, before he drops back into the academy environment with a different sense of what is required at the top.
A move into the under-21 side in the coming months feels like the natural next step. The jump in physicality, speed and decision-making will be severe. It is supposed to be.
Caution still matters. At 16, careers can tilt on injuries, attitude, or simply the brutal competition that defines elite football. No one inside Liverpool will be rushing to label him the next anything.
Yet the signs are hard to ignore. A first-team squad number already assigned. A place on a senior tour. A rejected offer that would turn the head of many established pros.
Liverpool have kept Joshua Abe. Now comes the real question: how far can he make that loyalty count?
