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Liverpool has confirmed the departure of Lewis Koumas to Birmingham City on loan for the 2025/26 season.
The Welshman, who spent last season on loan at Stoke City, returns to the Championship for a second campaign and adds to the new Tom Brady-inspired optimism surrounding the Blues.
The Midlands club was promoted from League One last term and has made an impressive start to life back in the second tier, taking four points from the opening two matches. Koumas’ addition will certainly help, with Birmingham adding a highly regarded midfielder from Liverpool. Despite that, Koumas has not been around the first-team group this summer.
He played just two pre-season friendlies for the senior team, coming off the bench in the 4-1 win over Athletic Bilbao, when the squad was split in half across two senior matches, and the 3-1 victory against Preston North End.
He was not selected in the Reds’ pre-season tour of Asia and is not expected to push for a spot in the Liverpool first team when he returns next summer.
“I’m really excited about it [the move] and looking forward to getting going,” Koumas told Birmingham’s website as the deal was announced.
“There was lots of interest but just how big of a club this is, how passionate the fans are, the project that I’ve heard about and after speaking to the gaffer, there was no other way about it - I was coming to Birmingham.
“I want to be wanted by a manager and I know he knows a lot about me.
" It’s always about developing and wanting to get better but I’m also here to come and prove what I can do, score goals and get assists.”
Koumas signed a new contract with Liverpool last summer before joining Stoke. The 19-year-old has made one competitive appearance for the Reds, coming in a 3-0 FA Cup win over February in February 2024, when Koumas also got on the scoresheet.
It is not believed the loan was completed in time for the youngster to play for Birmingham on Saturday when it takes on Oxford United at St Andrew’s.
Koumas is the seventh player to depart Liverpool on loan this summer, following: Owen Beck (Derby County), Harvey Davies (Crawley Town), Vitezslav Jaros (Ajax), Isaac Mabaya (Wigan Athletic), Luca Stephenson (Dundee United).
The Liverpool loanee is one of 11 new arrivals at Birmingham this summer, including high-profile signings Demari Gray and Kyogo Furuhashi. Tommy Doyle has joined on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers.
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