Gary Lineker sees Kylian Mbappe in Liverpool star as 'enormous' rise predicted

Gary Lineker

Gary Lineker has waxed lyrical about Liverpool winger Rio Ngumoha and compared him to Kylian Mbappe following an impressive individual performance in Sunday's 1-1 draw against Tottenham.

Ngumoha, 17, was handed his first Premier League start by Arne Slot for the game against Spurs at Anfield.

And it's safe to say the teenager grabbed the opportunity with both hands, standing out for the Reds on the left-hand side and looking dangerous almost every time he had the ball.

Although Ngumoha didn't score or grab an assist in the game, he gave Spurs right-back Pedro Porro a torrid time and the Reds didn't look as much of a threat when he wasn't on the pitch.

Jamie Carragher gave Ngumoha special praise on co-commentary for Sky Sports, describing him as "brilliant" and admitting you "can't stop" him in a one-on-one situation.

Now, ex-Everton and Leicester forward Lineker has weighed in with his opinion on Ngumoha and claimed he sees similarities to those of Real Madrid's Mbappe.

Speaking on the Rest Is Football, Lineker said: "You're always slightly wary of getting ahead of yourself, but you recognise special talent when it arrives and he looks to me the most likely since Wayne Rooney to absolutely be a superstar.

“I'm going to go off piece here to a different game, but Rio Nguomha, my word!

“You'd have [Max] Dowman on the right, the future looks bright! Wow, he was incredible. It was his first start in the PL and again, I don’t want to get carried away, I’m not comparing him, but I'm saying that he's got that stop-start sharpness of Mbappe.

“I'm not saying that he’s Mbappe because he's one of the greatest players, but he’s got enormous potential. He wasn’t scared to take people on, Porro didn't know which way he was going to go and then that clever threaded pass through, he went very close a couple of times.

"I thought he was very special, I'm surprised he went off actually."

Former Manchester City defender Micah Richards felt the game changed when Ngumoha went off. The Reds were leading 1-0 through Dominik Szoboszlai's first-half free-kick by the time Slot decided to substitute Ngumoha in the 64th minute, and Spurs went on to equalise to late on as Richarlison fired home.

Richards said: "I thought the game changed when he went off. He was pushing Spurs all the way back and then Spurs stayed in the game and got their goal. I thought he was the player of the match by far.

"I've been in that position, Pedro Porro, you know when someone’s got the better of you and he keeps going, we’re shouting, ‘just keep giving the ball to him, let’s see the battle’.

“Then you’re thinking, is he going to go back into the mode of what us pundits say is robotic and start getting it and coming back.

“But he didn’t and that was the most exciting thing where he just wanted to keep going and going with conviction.

"On another day, he could have had two goals and a couple of assists. I thought, overall performance for someone so young was very good."