Bobby Clark (footballer, born 2005)

Bobby Lamont Clark (born 7 February 2005) is an English footballer who plays as a midfielder for Premier League club Liverpool.

Early life
Clark trained with the academy at Birmingham City when his father, Lee Clark, was the manager there. The family moved back to the northeast of England in 2014. After visiting all the clubs in the area Clark chose to join the academy at Newcastle United.

Club career
Clark moved to the academy of Liverpool from Newcastle United in August 2021. The fee was thought to be for a total including add-ons of £1.5 million. He agreed a professional contract with the club shortly after his seventeenth birthday in February 2022. The contract was for five years and came with a personal guarantee from Liverpool's first team manager Jürgen Klopp that there would be a pathway to the first team available to him.

Featuring for the Liverpool under-18 side in the 2021–22 season Clark scored 13 goals in 23 matches. He also made his debut for the Liverpool side that competes in the Premier League 2. In the summer of 2022, Clark went with the Liverpool first-team squad on their trip to Asia for matches in Thailand and Singapore. Clark has featured as part of BBC Sport website Wonderkids feature, and was identified in August 2022 as one of the "Five Young English Footballers to Watch Out for" on their website.

Clark was an unused substitute for Liverpool's first home game of the 2022–23 Premier League season, against Crystal Palace at Anfield. On 27 August 2022, Clark made his professional debut appearing as a substitute for Liverpool against AFC Bournemouth in a 9–0 home victory at Anfield. Later that year, on 9 November, he started his first game for Liverpool in the win against Derby County in the third round of the EFL Cup at Anfield.

On 25 February 2024, he featured in the EFL Cup final as Liverpool won 1–0 against Chelsea after extra time. A few weeks later, on 14 March, he scored his first goal in a 6–1 Europa League win over Sparta Prague during the round of 16, in which he became the youngest player to score for Liverpool in European competitions, breaking previous record of Trent Alexander-Arnold in 2017.

International career
Clark made his debut for England national under-16 football team against Wales U16 in April 2021.

On 21 September 2022, Clark made his England U18 debut during a 1–0 win over the  Netherlands in Pinatar. On 6 September 2023, Clark made his England U19 debut during a 1–0 defeat to Germany in Oliva.

On 22 March 2024, Clark made his debut for the England Elite League squad during a 5-1 win over Poland at the Bialystok City Stadium.

Honours
Liverpool
 * EFL Cup: 2023–24