I was Liverpool's next 'sensational' wonderkid - now I'm in the MLS at 28 and mad about crocodiles

Back in 2019, Liverpool had a 22-year-old winger on their books and a decision to make. After a string of promising loan spells, most particularly with Steven Gerrard’s Rangers, Jürgen Klopp had to make a call as to whether to keep Ryan Kent at Anfield or allow him to progress his career back at Ibrox.

The Scottish side were keen to keep him around after he scored six goals in his debut SPL campaign and had won PFA Scotland’s Young Player of the Year Award, and Klopp was a fan, describing him as a “sensational” and “wonderful” player after he impressed in pre-season.

In the end, Kent was sold, and for a few years everything seemed to be coming up roses. In the 2020/21 season he scored 10 league goals, helping Rangers to the league title – but now, just a few years later, Kent is in the MLS having signed for Seattle Sounders having not played a single game since last July. So what happened, why was a player with whom both Klopp and Gerrard so enamoured unemployed for nearly six months, and why did crocodiles nearly take him to Iran?

What happened to Ryan Kent after he left Rangers?

Having hit some impressive heights in the 2020/21 campaign, Kent was never quite as effective afterwards. Over the course of the next two seasons, the Oldham-born winger only managed another six goals in all competitions, and by the time his contract ran down in 2023, the Gers were prepared to let him leave Ibrox.

Still, Kent had enough of a reputation to earn some strong offers on the free market. Ajax and Leeds United were alleged to be interested, but instead Kent signed a deal with Turkish giants Fenerbahçe. Unfortunately, it was a fresh start that swiftly turned sour.

It isn’t public knowledge as to why Kent fell out with either his coach, Ismail Kartal, or someone else in a position of power with the club, but after making 18 appearances for his new side (scoring once against Moldovan side Zimbru in qualifying for the Europa Conference League) Kent was dropped, frozen out and forced to train on his own.

For his part, Kent has only told the media that it’s something he doesn’t want to discuss for the foreseeable future, but whatever went wrong, the problem persisted under José Mourinho when the legendary Portuguese manager replaced Kartal in the summer.

Kent has since praised Mourinho as having been “fantastic” with him in an interview with American media and said that they had a positive relationship, but that didn’t extend to Mourinho wanting to give him much of a chance in his team – Kent was given just one match by the new manager, a Champions League qualifier against FC Lugano, and was never seen again.

With Kent frustrated and reportedly prepared to take Fenerbahçe to court over his being forced to train alone, club and player mutually agreed to the termination of his contract in October. It would take Kent nearly six months to find another club.

How crocodiles nearly took Kent to Iran before Seattle move

Kent’s search for a new side very nearly took him in a deeply idiosyncratic direction – to Iranian side Persepolis. A number of news outlets reported that Kent was close to agreeing a contract, and the supposed reason was unusual to say the least.

Kent has an abiding love affair with exotic pets which led him to once give a Rangers team-mate a pet snake as a Secret Santa gift, an offer which got the festive practice banned entirely, and it seems that he has had a long-term dream to own a crocodile. It’s just a shame for the sake of headline writers that he didn’t play for Dundee instead.

The Scottish Sun reported in 2024 that he had even purchased one and was looking for a keeper for it, but given that the article has since been deleted and the claim isn’t repeated elsewhere, that may have been inaccurate. In any case, a number of sources cited the legality of owning pet crocodiles in Iran as the main reason that he would sign for Persepolis.

Making the potential move even stranger was the fact that Persepolis’ manager at the time was none other than Ismail Kartal, the coach who had frozen him out at Fenerbahçe. Whether that indicated that the issue had been unrelated to his relationship with the manager or simply that either Kent or Kartal have a very short memory is unclear, but in any case the deal never happened and Kent’s crocodilian ambitions were placed on hold.

Instead, Kent has pitched up in the USA, signing with Seattle Sounders at the end of March, ending a spell of nearly six months of unemployment. He has yet to make his debut for a side which have won just one of their first seven matches of the new MLS season, but has already told local media that “more than anything I'm trying to find enjoyment in the game” after “a couple of difficult years in my career”.

Difficult may be an understatement, but perhaps he will rediscover the form which made Klopp contemplate keeping him at Liverpool or which catapulted Rangers to their last title four years ago. The crocodiles may have to wait, however – owning them is, unfortunately for the winger, illegal in Washington state.