Jürgen Klopp today expressed his admiration for the progress of on-loan Liverpool youngster Allan, who was called up by Brazil U20s for a training camp in Rio de Janeiro this week as his development continues.

The 19-year-old midfielder is one of only three players from clubs based in Europe to be involved in his country’s preparations for the South American Youth Championship in Ecuador, which serves as a qualifying tournament for the 2017 U20 World Cup.

Allan’s performances in helping SJK win the Finnish title for the first time and most recently for Belgium’s Sint-Truidense – where he has featured against the likes of Club Brugge, Standard Liege and Anderlecht – have caught the eye of coach Rogerio Micale.

And that of his club manager too, who has revealed why initial glimpses of the Brazilian in training were enough to convince him of the former Internacional starlet’s long-term potential.

Klopp told Liverpoolfc.com: "When I came here, one or two months later Allan was here and I said ‘who is this?’. ‘He is a player for us and the week before he became a champion in Finland.’ ‘Interesting - why didn’t he play here?’ ‘Because it’s not possible.’ And then I started learning about the FA rules and things like this.

"I saw him in training and I thought ‘oh my God, what can we do to keep this boy here and bring him into the line-up?’ He’s 19 years old, an outstanding talent, a good player with a good attitude, everybody loves him, he’s a nice lad – so that’s really, really good. He’s a smart player.

"There is no chance in this moment here because he can’t get the permission to play here, so we have to send him out on loan. We sent him to Belgium and he did well, really well until now. We had no doubts about this, it was a good transfer for both sides.

"Now for the first time he has got an invitation for the national U20 team, and that’s great. It’s really deserved because he’s an outstanding talent. Everybody has seen him, but it’s not too easy to have a lot of pictures of him because most of the time he has played in other countries.

"We hope we can find a solution in the future because he will be a fixed part of the squad in the future, for sure. Now he uses this time to improve and the next step to the U20 national team of Brazil is a great story."