Ki-Jana Hoever: Profile on 16-year-old who became Liverpool’s youngest ever player in the FA Cup

Ki-Jana Hoever: Profile on 16-year-old who became Liverpool’s youngest ever player in the FA Cup
Ki-Jana Hoever came off the bench for Liverpool in the FA Cup on Monday night to make history.The 16-year-old becamethe youngest ever player to feature for the Merseyside club in the competition, and their third youngest debutant ever,beating a record previously set by Ben Woodburn in January 2017, aged 17.3

The 16-year-old came off the bench on Monday

Jurgen Klopp had to turn to Hoever after Dejan Lovren suffered an early injury, and despite the 2-1 loss the youngster impressed.But who is he? talkSPORT.com takes a closer look at Hoever below…

Career

Hoever joined Liverpool in the summer of 2018, having failed to sign a senior deal at Ajax.He made his first Liverpool appearance for the Under-18s against Newcastle on September 15, a match Liverpool won 4-1. Three days later he was introduced as a substitute in the UEFA Youth League in Liverpool’s 5-2 over Red Star Belgrade three days later. At international level, he has an impressive tally withthree goals in five appearances for the Netherlands Under-17s.

Playing style

A defender, Hoever has drawncomparisons with Virgil van Dijk for his confidence and composure on the ball. He canplay at centre-back or on the right side of defence, and he developed into a ball-playing defender in his four years in Ajax’s academy.Inhis Premier League 2 debut against Everton, coach Neil Critchley said: “Unbelievable. Sixteen years old? Just… wow, really!”

Interesting fact

Current Liverpool team-mate James Milner was making his first-team debut for Leeds aged 16 years and 309 days in 2002. Hoever was exactly 296 days old on the same date..3

Milner was making his first-team debut for Leeds aged 16 when Hoever was 10 months old

What has been said

Jurgen Klopp: “If Joel (Matip) and Joe (Gomez) would have been fit all the time now then probably Ki-Jana would not have been in training. Now he was in and still is in, it’s just a joy to watch him.“He’s an incredible, confident, young fella and he’s really a good player on top. That we can see him day in, day out is really cool.”Barry Lewtas (Liverpool’s Under-18s coach):“I don’t want to sell him too much. He’s early in his journey here, he’ll take some time to adapt.3

Hoever tackles Diogo Jota in Liverpool’s FA Cup tie at Molineux

“What I can say is that he’s trained really well and I know he’s going to fit in really well. We are all keeping our feet on the floor with him.“He’s still got a lot to do; sometimes you can ride the wave when you first get into teams, but he knows it’s a long process. He’s very mature, he’s a good boy and he knows he’s got lots to improve on.”

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