Liverpool's £50k-a-week Wonderkid Joshua Abe: A Future Star
Liverpool did not just win a contract battle this summer. They won a statement one.
At the heart of it is Joshua Abe, a winger who turns 16 on Friday and has played just once above under-18 level. Yet one Premier League club was willing to put up to £50,000 per week on the table to prise him away from Merseyside, according to The Athletic.
Liverpool’s response? Lock him in early and show him exactly where they see his future.
A teenager Liverpool were not prepared to gamble on
In early June, the club secured Abe on scholarship terms, with a pre-contract agreement already in place for a three-year professional deal that will kick in on his 17th birthday next year. That is not routine academy admin. That is forward planning for a player they believe can live in the first-team environment sooner rather than later.
Before he signed, the competition was fierce. Several Premier League clubs circled, sensing an opportunity. One went all in with the kind of wage packet usually reserved for established internationals, not a boy still waiting for his 16th birthday cake.
Abe said no. He chose Liverpool.
That decision now takes him across the Atlantic. The winger is set to join Andoni Iraola’s first-team squad on their tour of the United States, a rare and telling step for a player at his stage of development. With a cluster of senior names on post-World Cup breaks, the door has opened, and Abe is one of those being pushed through it.
Big numbers, bigger faith
The scale of that rejected offer underlines just how highly he is rated across the division. To put it in context, £50,000 per week is the same wage Wataru Endo reportedly earns at Liverpool. Endo is 33, captain of Japan for years, and a seasoned professional at the highest level.
Abe, by contrast, has a single appearance above under-18 football: a substitute outing for Rob Page’s under-19 side in the UEFA Youth League against Zilina in February.
The numbers are eye-catching. The message behind them is louder. Clubs do not throw that kind of money at potential unless they think they are looking at a future star.
Liverpool’s own show of faith is just as clear. As reported by The Athletic’s Andy Jones, Abe has already been handed a first-team squad number for the 2026/27 season. That is not a token gesture. It is a marker, a timeline, a public sign of where the club believes his path is heading.
A coup in the academy arms race
In the modern Premier League, the battle for elite teenagers is as fierce as any transfer chase for a senior forward. Recruitment departments scour underage games for the next breakout talent, and the biggest clubs are not shy about offering senior-level money to win those fights.
Keeping Abe, then, is a genuine coup for Liverpool. They have not just fended off one rival; they have stared down a market that increasingly treats 16-year-olds like ready-made investments.
The risk, of course, is that expectations spiral. At his age, one good pre-season cameo can inflate the hype beyond all reason. Liverpool will try to manage that. The likely plan is straightforward: a taste of first-team exposure this summer, then a return to the academy environment, with a steady progression towards the under-21s over the coming months.
He will still be learning the rhythms of full-time football while headlines talk about £50,000-a-week offers he turned down.
Promise, patience and the next step
The temptation is to fast-forward, to talk about when Abe might break into the Premier League side, when he might light up Anfield, when those who tried to lure him away will regret missing out.
Liverpool, though, know this is the delicate stage. The talent is obvious enough for rival clubs to have pushed huge money his way. The club’s internal signals – scholarship, pre-contract, squad number, US tour – show they see the same thing.
Now comes the hard part: turning promise into presence.
If Abe handles the spotlight, if the club’s pathway works as intended, Liverpool may look back on this summer as the moment they quietly won one of the most important battles of their next generation.
And if he kicks on as they believe he can, how long before those same Premier League rivals come knocking again, this time with their chequebooks pointed at Liverpool instead of the academy gates?
