While Liverpool and head coach Andoni Iraola didn’t have to make any hard choices when submitting their Premier League squad list for the 2026-27 season, it’s a rather different story in the Champions League where two first team players were always going to miss out.
The question was who, and now we know: Federico Chiesa and Wataru Endo.
In England, and player under the age of 21 doesn’t have to be registered. In Europe, though, UEFA mandate that only U21 players who have spent two seasons at the club
are exempt—though in both cases, if a player has been at a club for three years before they turn 21 they then qualify as homegrown.
Regardless, it’s a situation means that in England, Liverpool didn’t need to make room for Jeremey Jacquet or Giovanni Leoni and were able to name everyone in a full 25-man squad. For the Champions League, both needed to be registered.
Players who have been at the club for at least two full years like Trey Nyoni and, after last season, Rio Ngumoha, do not need to be registered until they do turn 21, leading to an odd situation where Ngumoha needed to be registered last season and now doesn’t.
The most surprising part of Chiesa and Endo being the odd men out is that Hugo Ekitike makes the cut despite likely being out until late in December at the earliest, ruling him out of the first six of eight league phase games. That could be explained in part by the fact that while changes to the squad can be made after the league phase, clubs are limited to three.
Liverpool’s 2026-27 Champions League Squad List
- Ronald Araujo
- Bradley Barcola
- Alisson Becker
- Conor Bradley*
- Luke Chambers*
- Hugo Ekitike
- Jeremie Frimpong*
- Cody Gakpo
- Joe Gomez*
- Ryan Gravenberch
- Alexander Isak
- Jeremey Jacquet
- Vitezslav Jaros*
- Milos Kerkez
- Giovanni Leoni
- Isaac Mabaya*
- Alexis Mac Allister
- Giorgi Mamardashvili
- James McConnell*
- Victor Munoz
- Dominik Szoboszlai
- Kostas Tsimikas
- Virgil van Dijk
- Florian Wirtz
- Freddie Woodman*
