Introducing Liverpool’s Next Young Big Thing - Sergi Canos Tenes

The media is awash with reports that Liverpool FC have won the race to the signature of Barcelona’s whizkid Sergi Canos.

The La Furia Roja star is one of the hottest teenage prospects at Barcelona even as reports emerged that there is a standoff on negotiations about extending his contract with the Catalan club.

It’s not clear why the 16-year-old decided to turn his back on the La Liga champions but the rules in Spain over player contracts which means he is not eligible to sign a contract at 16 may have played a part. The fact that he stands to get more first team chances sooner at the Merseyside club must have made his mind up.  Ever since he took the managerial hotseat at Anfield, Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has shown he is not the type to baulk at throwing young guns into the thick of things having recently helped young Jordan Ibe earn his senior debut with the Reds.

Liverpool seem to have beaten Premier League rivals Arsenal and Manchester City to the hot La Masia Academy product who can play on the right wing, as an attacking midfielder and also as an attacker.

The versatile Spaniard, who has drawn comparisons with Lionel Messi from some quarters, has an eye for goal and his intelligence on the ball bellies his light years. In October last year, he netted five goals for Barcelona Cadete A team in a 6-1 hiding of Badalona and has continued to mesmerize this season hence the big interest from top European clubs.

Should he join Liverpool, the Spaniard will join one of the world's best football projects for young players and he should find it easy to settle in a club which plays a system akin to that he is used to at Barcelona. Brendan Rogders’ ‘tiki-taka’ football is beginning to take shape not only in the senior squad but academy and youth coaches at the red half of Merseyside are keen on ensuring if flows through the youth ranks as well.

Canos will become the latest young Spaniard to leave the well-regarded La Masia Academy for Liverpool academy, following in the footsteps of Dani Pacheco who left the Nou Camp club for Anfield in the summer of 2007.

Pacheco was made to wait until he turned 18 years before he could make his senior debut but 16-year-old Canos may not have to wait that long if Rodgers’ decision to give the likes of Jordan Ibe, Jerome Sinclair (who was actually 16), Raheem Sterling, Andre Wisdom, and fellow Spaniard Fernandez Suso first team chances at a young age is anything to go by.

And That's thesteifmastertake!!