He may have grown up idolizing Fernando Torres, but behind the scenes at Liverpool, the supposedly Leeds United-bound prodigy was drawing similarities to another Liverpool legend.
And, given that he is a centre-forward by trade and wears the number nine shirt for Liverpool’s youth teams in honor of a certain Spaniard, it may surprise you to learn that the player Oakley Cannonier was compared to in the Reds’ youth ranks was not, in fact, a penalty-taking striker.
Instead, he is regarded as one of his generation’s best attacking midfielders. However, his career, like Torres’s after leaving Liverpool, faded considerably.
Philippe Coutinho may never have reached the heights he was expected to when he signed for Barcelona for a staggering £142 million in 2018, making him the second-most expensive player in football history. While his flame was bright but short-lived, few playmakers in the modern Premier League era have lit up English football like him.
Coutinho, the ultimate pocket rocket, was a nuclear explosion of a footballer encased in pretty plain chassis.
At roughly 5ft 5ins, Cannonier – the Liverpool starlet joins Leeds United on an initial trial term – combines Coutinho’s combination of a small frame and deadly accuracy. Consider his hat-trick against Ajax in Liverpool’s Under-19s’ 4-0 UEFA Youth League victory a few years ago.
Oakley Cannonier, a Leeds United trialist, has been likened to Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho
Cannonier’s three goals were cool finishes within the penalty area, but the Coutinho similarities make sense when you consider what the teenager achieved with eight minutes remaining. Dropping deep, Cannonier picked up the ball outside the penalty area, moved it to his left foot, and fired a shot toward goal.
The Ajax goalkeeper may have managed to tip it around the post – one of the few times he outperformed a furious Cannonier that day – but it was reminiscent of Coutinho’s famous finishing move.
According to The Athletic, some Liverpool staff members recognized Coutinho in Cannonier’s ‘light body, low center of gravity, quick feet, and devastating finish’.
Attributes that could lead to a return to West Yorkshire for the 20-year-old born in Leeds.
According to sources, Leeds United has put Oakley Cannonier on trial for a week. He even played in the Under-21s’ 2-1 loss to West Ham over the weekend. Cannonier, a local who crossed the Pennines to build his mark, could still continue up where he left off when he moved from Yorkshire to Merseyside in 2015.
Daniel Farke has demonstrated tremendous faith in Mateo Joseph, and perhaps Cannonier hopes the same will be displayed in him.
Meanwhile, Leeds has been waiting for this moment since Cannonier’s departure nearly a decade ago.
Leeds attempted to bring Cannonier back to Yorkshire in 2020.
The Athletic reports that Cannonier, who captained England at Under-16 level, was offered a return to Thorp Arch before earning his first professional contract in 2020. Four years later, one of the most gifted young strikers in the local game is trying to move from the sterile world of youth-team football to the men’s game. His breakthrough could come in white rather than red.
Cannonier admits that he began in the type of advanced playmaking role that Coutinho established at Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp.
His 33 goals in 37 appearances for the club’s Under-18 team, on the other hand, imply that he will play as a number nine rather than a number 10 in the future.
“I used to assist more. “I used to be a number ten,” Cannonier admitted a few years ago. “Dropping deep and stuff – what I do now as a striker – has benefited me. I don’t mind working a shift for the other boys and attempting to set them up rather than focusing solely on myself.
“When I was younger, I used to admire Torres. But after he moved to Chelsea, it was [Luis] Suarez. I adored them two. They were merely goal scorers and decisive players, and I aspired to be like them.
“To be honest, I dislike not scoring [in games]. I don’t speak with anyone. It’s not selfish, but I put pressure on myself to score. I simply want to be the best I can.”
