Liverpool are on the verge of signing former Barcelona starlet Juanma.
The versatile defender was a product of the Catalan club’s famed La Masia academy but recently impressed during a trial with the Reds’ youth set-up.
Juanma, 19, will offer Michael Beale’s under-23 side fresh diversity in the new campaign as a player that can operate at both centre-back and left-back.
Speaking last month, Beale admitted that the Spaniard had already left an early impression.
“Juanma is a boy who’s come in to spend the week with us with a view to maybe seeing more of him,” he said at the time.
“He’s only had a couple of days training with us, speaks very little English but you can see a very good player.
“He was at Barcelona so we’ll have a look and see how we go with him. He played with Madger Gomes and Pedro Chirivella with Spain so we’re quite familiar with him.
“He’s very versatile and can play in different positions because technically he’s very good.
“I quite like him, he reminds he a little bit of someone like a Pablo Zabaleta-type player, a nice player.”