Why a FIFPRO nod says more about Jeremie Frimpong’s season than his minutes do
Judge Jeremie Frimpong purely on what he has done in a red shirt this term and you would come away underwhelmed. Look a little wider, though, and there is a story here we think deserves more attention, even if it does not help Andoni Iraola pick a right-back.
The Dutchman has been shortlisted for the 2026 FIFPRO Merit Award in the Player Voice Award category, for Pathways, a project he set up to support young players who leave the academy system without a professional contract.
Pathways tackles football’s forgotten question
More than 800 young people aged 15 to 22, boys and girls, across four countries have already been through the scheme. They get guidance on careers in areas like tech, gaming and finance, plus access to mental health professionals. For a teenager who believed football was the only plan, that can be the difference between drifting and rebuilding.
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Clubs spend fortunes developing players, most of whom never make it, and too little thought goes into the rest. A Premier League footballer putting his energy behind that problem is worth celebrating, whatever his fitness record says.
A stop-start first chapter on Merseyside
On the pitch it has been hard going. Liverpool brought him in from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer of 2025 on a deal to 2030, tasked with filling the gap Trent Alexander-Arnold left. Injuries keep interrupting him. Eight appearances, one goal and two assists is a thin return for a 25-year-old whose game is built on speed, repeated sprints and timing, qualities that need a run of matches to sharpen.
Araujo, Al Hilal and an uncertain January
The competition has moved on without him. Ronald Araujo’s loan arrival has reshaped the order, his aggression, physicality and set-piece threat making an instant impact, and Frimpong has slipped out of the starting picture.
Reports suggest Al Hilal are keen and the player is weighing it up. If he leaves in January, Liverpool need a replacement ready to walk straight in. For now, the most impressive part of Frimpong’s season is happening off the grass, and that says plenty about how his time at Anfield has gone.
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