Calum Scanlon Player Profile – Liverpool FC

callum scanlon signs new contract with lfc

Elsewhere on this site you can read the player profile of Owen Beck, a promising young left-back who has enjoyed a degree of success thanks to a loan move to Scotland with Dundee United. He isn’t the only young full-back that Liverpool are hoping to bring through the ranks in the coming years, however.

With left-back having been a problem position for the Reds for a long time, with only really Fabio Aurelio standing out in recent years prior to the arrival of Andy Robertson from Hull City, it now looks as though the club have got a couple of lads who can fulfil the role coming one after the other and offering hope at left-back.

When Andy Robertson was injured, Jürgen Klopp would turn to either Kostas Tsimikas or Joe Gomez to play there, with the latter of the two being a centre-back who the German used as something of a utility player. When there were numerous injuries to the position at the start of 2024, Klopp recalled Beck from his loan move to offer some cover at left-back.

That is perhaps because players like Luke Chambers and Calum Scanlon were seen as being a little bit too young and inexperienced to fit in there. That won’t always be the case, however, with Scanlon being one of the players looking to cement his place in Liverpool’s squad in the future.

Who is Calum Scanlon?

Calum Alexander Scanlon was born in Birmingham on the 14th of February 2005. Perhaps unsurprisingly given his place of birth, he was snapped up by Birmingham City’s youth system and played for the club for a number of years. The Blues, of course, were the club that developed Jude Bellingham before selling him to Borussia Dortmund for £25 million in 2020 when he was just 17-years-old.

Six months later and it was time for Scanlon’s family to decide whether a move away from Birmingham to Liverpool was the right move for the youngster. Ultimately they decided that it was a move that made sense for all concerned, with the Reds paying £500,000 for his signature.

It came during an aggressive push from Liverpool’s Academy to bring in a number of bright young prospects. Between 2018 and 2022 the Reds signed Melkamu Frauendorf, Stefan Bajcetic, Kaide Gordon, Keyrol Figueroa, Conor Bradley, Mateusz Musialowski, Trent Kone-Doherty, Ben Doak and Bobby Clark, so it’s fair to say that Scanlon was in good company.

With Bajcetic, Bradley and Clark becoming regular members of Jürgen Klopp’s squad during the 2023-2024 season, it is clear that there is a pathway for young players to make it at Anfield if they’re good enough; albeit the new manager might have different ideas on that front.

Whilst his family might have been looking at all of the pros and cons of him signing for the Reds, the same thoughts weren’t going through the player’s mind. He later said,

“It was a no-brainer really. I knew what I had to do. I knew it was the best for my development. When I first heard Liverpool were interested in signing me, I was ecstatic. It was an amazing feeling. I went to the training ground, met the coaches and I knew I had found the perfect place to develop. It was surreal. It was an amazing club with amazing history, passionate fans. It was really everything you could ask for. I just instantly knew that this was a special club that I wanted to be a part of.”

Making His Way Through the Ranks

Calum Scanlon worked hard to get himself settled as quickly as possible at the Academy, with the sight of him running down the left channel for the Under-18s being something that everyone grew used. When he made the decision to leave Birmingham he posted on Instagram saying,

“Happy to sign with Liverpool FC. A big thank you to BCFC and everyone who has helped me progress to this point, but as of today I start a new chapter. The hard work continues, let’s go!”

He was just 15-years-old at the time, having already represented his country at the Under-15s level and also being able to play in midfield if needs be.

He was all but rushed into the Under-18s, with his first appearance at the age group coming after he’d been in school for the day as a Year 11 student. He then took part in a 3-0 Premier League North win over Derby County, proving that he had the ability to make himself a permanent fixture in Marc Bridge-Wilkinson’s Under-18 team.

Bridge-Wilkinson said, “He looked comfortable on his debut, he didn’t look out of place at this level and that’s all you can ask for” after Scanlon had come on in the second-half. It was the start of a journey for the youngster, who was unfortunately blighted by injury as he looked to establish himself.

During the 2022-2023 campaign, Scanlon ended up facing four months on the sidelines after the turn of the year thanks to an injury that stifled his development a touch. When he returned, he made clear that he wanted to ‘progress’ and ‘improve every day’, continuing to develop his ability to make line-breaking passes and to improve his athleticism in order to try to make the grade for the Liverpool first team.

With Owen Beck on loan at Dundee for the 2023-2024 season, Scanlon was seen as one of the best choices for Jürgen Klopp to turn to if the going got tough, which is why he redoubled his efforts on the training pitch.

Debuts & New Contracts

When Liverpool finished in fifth place at the end of the 2022-2023 Premier League season, there was a palpable sense of disappointment in the ranks around Anfield. It meant that the club would miss out on Champions League football for the first time since Jürgen Klopp’s first full season, instead having to settle for the Europa League.

Whilst that was obviously not what everyone wanted, it did mean that the manager could take a few more risks with his team selection and look to offer youth players the chance to gain some much-needed experience, proving to others that there was a route to the first team courtesy of the German.

For Calum Scanlon, that route involved being on the substitute’s bench for the Europa League match against Toulouse at Anfield. If he feared that he was just going to be an unused substitute, however, then that fear was removed when he replaced Darwin Núñez with just under half an hour still to play. It was his Liverpool debut, which was something that will live long in the memory for him.

In fact, in the living room of his house are the boots that he wore that night along with his shirt, framed for posterity and as a reminder of the achievement of playing for the Liverpool team but also of what he still wants to achieve in his career.

He didn’t stop working hard and that hard work was rewarded again, this time with an away appearance in the same competition. It was Union SG that Liverpool were playing, with Scanlon this time replacing fellow Academy left-back Luke Chambers with 63 minutes on the clock.

The Reds won the game against Toulouse 5-1 but lost 2-1 against Union; a reminder to all concerned that even the Europa League couldn’t be taken for granted. They still emerged from the group as winners and Scanlon could at least take some consolation in the fact that neither of the goals were scored whilst he was on the pitch, instead coming in the first-half.

In the April of 2024, it was confirmed that Scanlon had signed a new contract with Liverpool. The 19-year-old had signed his first professional contract two years earlier, this time re-committing his future to the club after having played for the Under-21s in addition to getting his first team debut.

His level-headed nature and determined to succeed were just two of the reasons why the club felt comfortable signing him up for longer, having first played in the left-back position when he was in the Under-14s at Birmingham City. Now he is one of the great hopes for the Reds in the spot, which he’ll be hoping to make his own in the future.

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