Comolli: Liverpool looking to Asia

Liverpool director of football Damien Comolli says the club are turning their attention to Asia in a bid to land their next big star.

GettyImagesLiverpool have a huge following in Asia.

Comolli has built contacts in China with Liverpool's scouting network in the region seeing them take Chinese youngsters Lung Chan and Chen Nal on trial with the Under-16 squad and the club are keen for more to follow.

"We think [Asia] it's an untapped market. It has such a vast population and there are an incredible number of youngsters playing football in that part of the world," Comolli told Liverpoolfc.tv.

"Statistically we think there will be good players coming out of these countries. With China being the biggest one and football being the most popular sport amongst young people, we feel it is an opportunity to find a quality player."

With the duo already impressing in the Academy squad, Comolli is keen to make sure that all parties are able to learn from the experience.

"It's all part of the network we have developed in China," he said. ''We spoke to people before we travelled there with the first-team in the summer and while I was out there I went to see a few games. I looked at a few of their players in the U-16 age group and younger.

"We said to the people over there, that if they had players that they thought would interest us, they should bring them over. Once we sorted the visa we were able to do that and it's interesting for us to see them training with some of our Academy players.

"We just want to see how they compare with our players of a similar age. We have a very good group of U-16 and U-17 players. From what I have seen so far, these two boys are of a higher level than the players I saw in China in the summer.

"One of them is particularly strong physically. We will do all sorts of tests, technically and physically to see how they react to training and games. We'll take it from there. We don't want to put them under massive pressure because we want them to have a good experience and enjoy being at Liverpool Football Club.''