Gerardo Bruna, who Liverpool signed from Real Madrid as a 16-year-old, has explained the difficulties that he found upon arriving on Merseyside - and sent a warning to the youngsters currently coming through the Reds’ Academy.
Bruna was ranked at number 10 in World Soccer Magazine's 'Top 50 Most Exciting Teenage Footballers' in 2007, three places behind Sergio Aguero and four behind Gareth Bale, but never made a first-team appearance at Anfield after he was let go by Kenny Dalglish.
Now at Derry City in Ireland as a 29-year-old who has also played for the likes of Tranmere Rovers and Blackpool, Bruna’s career has not gone the way many expected, but he insists that he has no regrets.
Speaking exclusively to the ECHO on a special Blood Red podcast, Bruna said: "Lionel Messi, there is only one, and there will be only one, but you can do nothing about what the press writes about you.
"It didn’t bother me or influence me or anything like that - the press named me that and it is what it is. I just wanted to make a name for myself.
Listen to the full podcast with Gerardo Bruna by clicking HERE
"For me, [moving to Liverpool and adjusting to life on Merseyside] was a big shock and a big change. I was only 16 and I came into a new country with a new culture, a new style of football and a new language and I found it really hard to settle down and adapt to everything.
"But it is very good for you to grow as a person and a player. It was amazing."
Plenty of Liverpool youngsters have been brought in over the last few seasons. Sepp van den Berg is one of those who was signed from Holland in anticipation of him fulfilling his potential in future, while Ki-Jana Hoever was in the same boat until he departed for Wolves in a £13.5 million deal earlier this summer.
Bruna knows better than most that making it at one of the best teams in the world is very difficult, as many of the current teenage crop at Anfield are set to find.
He added: "As a young player, all you want to do is get to the top and Liverpool seemed like the easiest - or quickest - way to the top.
"In Madrid, I was 16 playing with the U17s, playing one year ahead of my age, but in Liverpool I was straight in the reserves and sometimes training with the first-team.
"You jump at that because I went from playing with kids to being in that environment, so it seemed that it was the quickest way to the top.
"Real Madrid, they really looked after me, but Liverpool really wanted me and sometimes decisions go good, and sometimes they go bad - I don’t regret it.
"It was really difficult to break into that team - amazing players, world-class players everywhere, but it was an amazing experience. But it took me time to adapt because of the pace and the speed of the ball. Everything was just phwaor - I was years behind!
"You just have to learn and learn quick - there is no time to wait. [To make it as a regular senior player] you have to be in the right time and the right place.
"Obviously, you have to perform - Trent has done that, for example; he is an amazing player - but Jurgen Klopp is not scared to play them. He just seems to really like the young players and give them chances, but you have to deserve it as well."
Bruna was competing with the likes of Xabi Alonso, Javier Mascherano and Steven Gerrard for a place in the Liverpool senior team - a similarly unenviable task for those coming through the system now in any position across the pitch.
Liverpool still have faith in all of their biggest prospects. Bruna, though, is proof that while not all of them will make it at Liverpool, a football career can still be carved out elsewhere.
