Why are Liverpool fans talking about mystery Ghanaian Emmanuel Ntim?

Liverpool fans are talking about mystery Ghanaian Emmanuel Ntim, but who is the player?

A Reddit thread has appeared that claimed a small French media outlet called Le Pivot has linked the defender with a move to Anfield.

Despite the fact that Le Pivot appears to be unsearchable on Google, an impressive feat in of itself, we thought we’d run the rule over the abilities of 24-year-old Emmanuel Ntim and where he might fit in to the squad.

The Ghana U20 international plays his football for Ligue 2 side Valenciennes FC, whom he joined in  2014 from the Right To Dream academy in his homeland.  After a season-long loan deal with FC Chambly in which he only featured three times, but has only really broken through to the first team this campaign.

This has led to the side rewarding him with a two-year contract extension, reported Ghanasoccernet.com, which will run until 2022.

Ntim has only missed four games all season as he’s played in central defence, although he can fill in at right-back if required.

This seems like a strange name to be mentioning alongside a move to Liverpool. At 24, it would take some force of nature for the player to develop into someone who could be good enough to play at a title winning Premier League standard.

Central defence isn’t really a problem area for Liverpool either. Even if Dejan Lovren leaves, we have Sepp van den Berg as the best of the young crop while Ki-Jana Hoever could step up into that position as well.

While it’s always interesting to see the club linked with curveball names – and sometimes there can be bargains had from unlikely sources – those players tend to be younger and first go to teams lower down the top flight ladder.

So it doesn’t seem as if Emmanuel Etim is going to be our N’Golo Kante or Riyad Mahrez just yet.