According to the Daily Mail, Liverpool and Manchester United have been tracking Derby County youngster Kaide Gordon following his progress at Pride Park.
The 16-year-old made his Derby debut in the 4-0 win at Birmingham City last week.
Gordon became the fourth ever youngest debutant for Derby, behind the likes of Mason Bennett, Lee Holmes and former 1970s title-winning defender Steve Powell.
The attacker is an exciting talent at Derby and has attracted Premier League interest.
The Daily Mail claim both Liverpool and United are circling, while dubbing the youngster a ‘special’ talent and one of the most exciting 16-year-olds in the country.
Speaking to RamsTV after his debut at Birmingham, Wayne Rooney praised Gordon.
“I brought Kaide up with the first-team initially to train with us for a week to see how he reacted to it, and he was one of the best trainers. I kept him with us for a couple of weeks and he’s been training at the same level if not to a better level to a lot of the other [first-team] players. As I said to the players, if you train hard and train well, I will you give your chance. He deserves it.”
Derby have one of the most productive academies in the country right now.
Max Bird, Morgan Whittaker, Jason Knight, Louie Sibley and Lee Buchanan are all academy graduates among the regular 18-man first-team squad on match days.
But Gordon arguably has the raw talent to make an impact at an even earlier age.
The England U16 international has been with Derby since he was nine, and played for the U18s aged just 15. He won the academy POTY last season.
Derby will be desperate to retain him. The Rams already lost Liam Delap to Manchester City before he could sign a professional contract. They won’t want a repeat of that with Gordon.
Liverpool and United, meanwhile, have made a habit of securing the country’s best talent at a young age and they have a proud history of bringing through youngsters.
Also see: Rooney raves about latest Derby academy ace ‘bettering’ first-team players in training
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