Jarell Quansah has backed Rio Ngumoha to win the Ballon d'Or one day, after seeing Harry Kane become the first England player to win the prize since Michael Owen in 2001.
The Bayern Munich star enjoyed an incredible season for club and country, returning 73 goals and eight assists from 65 matches as he helped the Bavarians to a Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal double, before captaining England to a third-place finish at the World Cup.
Kane, who won the prize ahead of Kylian Mbappe and Lamine Yamal, then became England's most-capped player of all-time against Croatia on Thursday night in his first appearance for his country since winning the Ballon d'Or.
Quansah's verdict on Ngumoha
Ahead of the game, some of his Three Lions team-mates were asked to pick a young player who could become a future Ballon d'Or winner.
And former Liverpool defender Quansah wasted little time in selecting Reds starlet Ngumoha as he opened up on the immediate impact the young forward made in training when first linking up with the Reds and England.
“I don’t want to put anyone too high like that but, outstanding, outstanding talent is Rio Ngumoha,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live. “Trained with him at Liverpool a lot. Very young when he came to Liverpool.
“He’s so sharp, so quick. I think the first thing most lads said when he came here, he’s so brave at doing his one-v-ones and definitely someone who has potential to be on that level.”
Ngumoha's own Ballon d'Or ambition
Ngumoha himself has actually made no secret of his desire to win the Ballon d'Or one day, reiterating that it was one of his dreams only earlier this week.
“Yeah, 100%,” the 18-year-old said. “Harry Kane winning the Ballon d'Or is definitely a big, big thing, being known as the best player in the world.
“It's also helped English football now because everyone's seen one of us win the Ballon d’Or, it is definitely encouraging many more people to wanting to definitely be known as the best player in the world. For me, I would like to achieve it and I think I can do it.
“I feel like if you don't visualise anything or you don't dream big enough, then you might not ever achieve it.”
