Liverpool's Wonderkid Joshua Abe Rejects £50k-a-Week Offer
Liverpool did not just win a contract battle this summer. They won a statement.
At the heart of it is Joshua Abe, a winger who turns 16 on Friday and has played only one game above under-18 level. On paper, that should make him just another name on a long academy list. In reality, Premier League clubs were prepared to throw senior money at him to prise him away from Anfield.
One rival went as high as £50,000 per week for a professional deal, according to The Athletic. That is not academy money. That is first-team, proven-in-Europe money. That is the same wage Wataru Endo, a 33-year-old Japan captain with a long senior career behind him, currently earns at Liverpool.
And Abe said no.
Instead, in early June, Liverpool tied him down on scholarship terms with a pre-contract agreement for a three-year professional deal, due to kick in on his 17th birthday next year. For a player still technically school age, that is a club nailing its colours to the mast.
A teenager in demand
The chase for Abe was not quiet. The Athletic’s Andy Jones detailed how “a host of Premier League clubs” moved for the winger, with one of them pushing that eye-catching £50,000-per-week offer across the table. For a youngster whose only taste of football above under-18 level came as a substitute for Rob Page’s under-19 side in the UEFA Youth League against Zilina in February, the numbers are extraordinary.
Liverpool’s response has been equally emphatic. Abe has already been handed a first-team squad number for the 2026/27 season, a clear marker of where they see his trajectory. Inside Kirkby, that kind of gesture is not handed out lightly. It is a message: this is not just another prospect; this is one they expect to see in a senior dressing room.
The club now plans to take him on Andoni Iraola’s first-team tour to the United States, where the absence of several senior players on post-World Cup breaks opens a door for academy talent. Abe stands near the front of that queue.
A huge coup in a ruthless market
Strip away the romance and look at the numbers. A 15-year-old, with one outing above under-18 football, being offered a wage packet that matches a seasoned international in a top Premier League squad. That is the scale of the belief – and the desperation – from elsewhere.
That Liverpool kept him, on scholarship terms rather than giving in to a bidding war, underlines two things: their confidence in the pathway they can offer and the trust Abe and his camp have placed in that vision.
The academy has long been a source of pride on Merseyside, but this is a different type of victory. This is not just about developing what you have; it is about fending off elite-level poachers willing to distort the wage structure for a teenager who has barely begun.
Rivals will not walk away because one contract is signed. If Abe develops as many inside Liverpool expect, the same clubs – and more – will be back, only with bigger numbers and louder promises.
The next steps
For now, the plan is simple. Abe is likely to taste first-team exposure in pre-season, training and potentially playing alongside senior professionals on the US tour. Those sessions, those minutes, those journeys, often shape a young player as much as any academy match.
After that, the expectation is a steady climb: more responsibility in the youth ranks, a probable move into the under-21 side in the coming months, and a gradual build towards that 2026/27 season when his squad number stops being symbolic and starts to feel real.
Caution still matters. At his age, talk of ceilings and superstardom helps nobody. But the signs are hard to ignore: the aggressive interest from elsewhere, the money on offer, the faith Liverpool have shown, and the clear pathway being drawn in front of him.
In a market where teenagers are treated like finished products, Liverpool have backed their structure over a quick payday. Abe has backed the club over the cash.
If his talent grows at the same rate as the offers already have, Anfield may one day look back on this summer not as a routine bit of academy housekeeping, but as the moment they kept hold of a winger the rest of the league was ready to buy at any price.
