Academy kid tapped up by Liverpool may join Everton

THE 13-year- old footballer at the centre of a tapping- up storm between Stoke City and Liverpool may now end up at the Merseyside club’s great rivals, Everton.

Liverpool have been banned from signing players from other English academies for two years and fined £100,000 after admitting ‘tapping up’ a young player while he was affiliated to Stoke. The youngster’s move to Anfield has since fallen down and he has been left in limbo, unable under Premier League rules to join another academy until Liverpool pay Stoke a £50,000 compensation fee. That has not yet happened but

Sportsmail understands that the teenager has been training and having trials at Everton and could yet move to Goodison Park once the wrangle with Liverpool is finally sorted.

This would add further to Liverpool’s embarrassment at the end of a week in which details were revealed of their underhand attempts to poach a player who is understood to have been on Stoke’s books since the age of eight.

The Premier League held an investigation into a claim that the boy was offered a forbidden inducement to move from Stoke last summer when he was 12, with the serious allegation made that Liverpool reneged on an agreement to pay his school fees when they eventually did not sign him.

But the sanction that has been imposed on Liverpool stems from the club accepting that they spoke to the player and his family before they were permitted to. This included them paying for him and some of his family to watch a game at Anfield.

Neither Everton or the Premier League commented on the latest development last night.