Rio Ngumoha has credited Mohamed Salah for his development at Liverpool as he eyes a potential full England debut. The 18-year-old was a surprise inclusion in Thomas Tuchel's squad for the World Cup and retained his place for the first international break of the campaign, featuring briefly against Czechia in Prague.
Ngumoha could earn his first start in upcoming matches against Croatia and in the second meeting with Czechia. He hopes to apply the advice he received from Salah, who told the youngster to focus on his end product before leaving Anfield.
Salah's key advice
Speaking to The FA, Ngumoha said: "The player who I probably learned the most from is Mohamed Salah, when he was at Liverpool. He taught me a lot, especially towards the back end when he knew he was leaving. He helped me a lot."
"Like he always says about looking at his numbers and he was always telling me: 'Rio, you know you're a good player but to reach the top, you have to add the goals and assists.' And it will come naturally but he was just going through little things like that [with me]. When he first started [talking to me], it was like: 'Wow! I've been watching you since I was young and you're telling me how to [improve]. Like, you're helping me and you're guiding me.'"
"But then over time, I saw him as a very good team-mate and he was helping me a lot, so I can thank him much more."
England ambitions
On his fledgling England career, Ngumoha added: "I definitely had the confidence to believe I could wear the England shirt at 18. Did I think it'd be the first camp? Maybe not. But I definitely knew that I'd be playing one day when I was still pretty young."
"I was ready to go [when coming on], Once I knew I was coming on, I just had the hunger, the fight, the belief. And once I was on the pitch, it was like any game of football really. I think, you know, Jude is 23 and is already probably the best midfielder in the world at this point."
"And he definitely believed that he would play in an England shirt at 17, same as Wayne Rooney, what he did for his club, his country, hopefully I can do the same. It's going to be a good journey I think, yes."
