THE ball boy who assisted Trent Alexander-Arnold’s quickly taken corner against Barcelona is set to leave Liverpool after 10 years.
Oakley Cannonier showed quick-thinking in the Champions League semi-final tie at Anfield in 2019 by throwing the ball to Alexander-Arnold.
The England right-back then took a swift corner that was tapped home by Divock Origi to help Liverpool secure an incredible 4-3 comeback win.
It was one of the most famous results in the club’s history and Cannonier’s actions were widely praised after helping them reach the final.
He received plaudits from boss Jurgen Klopp and Alexander-Arnold, who texted him after he joined his brother’s football agency.
Cannonier was a 14-year-old Liverpool youth star at the time after joining the academy in 2015.
The boyhood Liverpool fan was 11 when he signed for the club from Leeds United.
He was tipped for a big things after a flurry of goals for the youth teams, but injuries have disrupted his progress.
And the striker, now 21, is set to leave Liverpool this summer when his contract expires.
He told The Athletic: “I will leave at the end of the season and am just looking for regular games. With my age, that is all I want to be doing.
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“The last 18 months have been really difficult with no games to look forward to.
“You train all week and then there is nothing at the end of it. It’s been pretty c**p.”
Cannonier has struggled shake off persistent hamstring injuries and his time out of the game has been costly after failing to pick up minutes.
That inactivity has meant he is now too old for academy football but too inexperienced for the first team.
He added: “People haven’t seen me play for two years. That’s the thing that has held me back.
“If I had been playing regular games in PL2, I would be scoring goals but it hasn’t worked out like that.
“I have been fit for two years and the manager has picked other players. They bought a really good striker, Will Wright, from Salford, so he has been playing.“
Cannonier said he didn’t have a club lined up but that he would be “absolutely fine”, adding: “I don’t mind where, I just want to be playing and scoring goals, showing everyone how good I am.”
He’s played a total of 67 times for Liverpool youth teams overall, scoring a total of 44 goals.
Cannonier has also featured for England at U15, U16, U18 and U19 level.
