Trent Kone-Doherty was training with Liverpool’s under-18s when he received a surprise call-up to join the first team, as he recalled this week.
Ahead of the Reds’ trip to Premier League side Newcastle, 17-year-old winger Kone-Doherty was spotted at the AXA training center with the senior squad.
It was a rare sight of the Irishman with the first team when he trained alongside Mohamed Salah, Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo and Darwin Nunez.
And it also surprised Kone-Doherty himself, who after receiving the invitation was already warming up with the U18 teams elsewhere on the training ground.
“I was actually warming up with the under-18s and then they told me I had to go for first-team training,” he told the club’s official website. “I went [up] a little fast, just smiling. I was really happy and grateful.
“Because it came so quickly, I didn’t have too much time to think.
–
I went up and it was a really good experience. I really enjoyed it and I’m just grateful for the opportunity.”
Kone-Doherty, who worked alongside his namesake Trent Alexander-Arnold, joked that there was some confusion: “They called me Trend but some of the players laughed because we kept mixing it up!”
Kone-Doherty was surprisingly left out of Liverpool’s squad for the trip to St James’ Park, with Ben Doak on the bench along with Nunez and Jota. Instead, he scored in a 2-0 win over Derby U18s, although he has already been tested at Under-21 level this season, where he had to use his “fearless” attitude.
“I feel like I play my best game when I honestly play without fear,” the teenager continued.
– I just try to defend myself, whoever I’m playing against. I think my father instilled that in me when I was younger.
“Every time I got the ball when I was young, I tried to fool people [in the past]. “It’s something that’s kind of stuck with me, and I think I’m going to do my best by playing fearlessly.”
That fearlessness will work in Kone-Doherty’s favor the next time he is called up for first-team training because there is no mercy in senior football.
