Brouwer: I had to join Liverpool

Brouwer joined Liverpool from Dutch side Ajax in January.

The youngster told Liverpoolfc.tv: “It is a once in a lifetime opportunity to play for a club like Liverpool. It’s a very big club. It is bigger than Ajax because this is England, the competition is better. It is the best and the biggest league in the world.”

Brouwer said, on his contact with Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez: “It was on January 7 before I signed for the club. He said he wanted a new striker and that he had big plans for the future with quite a few young players. He said he wanted to give them a good education, good training and develop them.

“He said I’d start in the reserves but that I’d sometimes train with the first team. I haven’t trained with them yet but I played with a few of them after the West Ham game. Afterwards we trained with the substitutes. That was brilliant. It’s crazy for me to be playing with Robbie Fowler! I’d seen a lot of him over in Holland. He’s a great striker and I think I can learn a lot from him.”