Jurgen Klopp has hailed the burgeoning quality of 17-year-old defender Billy Koumetio after the teenager trained with Liverpool's first-team at the club's Austrian training camp.
Teenager Koumetio only signed his first professional contract last week, but he did feature on the bench as an unused substitute in the 5-5 League Cup draw with Arsenal last October.
The French youngster was also pitchside as a ball boy during the Reds' epic Champions League victory over Barcelona in May last year, and he's now rubbing shoulders with first-team stars as he bids to break into the first team.
"Billy the kid. He doesn't look like a kid!" Klopp told the Reds website.
"In my opinion, his face looks like a kid but then all the rest is like, wow!
"I told him, 'Last time I saw you, you were like 20 centimetres less if I'm right.' That's pretty special. Yes, he's a big talent.
"Billy was unfortunately injured for quite a while, so he's now coming back. The perfect situation would be that he maybe really first be with the U23s and stuff like this. But a training camp is a nice opportunity for him, it's good for us to see him.
"I took him this morning [Sunday] in a session because we have to make sure we don't over-do [it] with him, it's very important.
"So he was not part of the last part of the session physically but I took him aside and explained what we do there.
"I think things like this help him a lot and I'm pretty sure he will make big steps. We just have to make sure that we really deal with his age group and physical demands well."
New Reds signing Kostas Tsimikas is also with the group as he gets used to life with the Premier League champions.
