Liverpool have identified their Mohamed Salah replacement and they want the deal done before the World Cup kicks off on June 11. Yan Diomande, the 19-year-old RB Leipzig and Ivory Coast winger, is the number one target at Anfield and Liverpool are pushing hard to get it over the line in the next ten days. There is just one problem. PSG want him too. And Manchester City. And Leipzig are asking for €100 million.
Diomande is not a name that will be familiar to every Premier League fan yet but the football world has known about him for a while. He is 19 years old, plays for Ivory Coast, scored 10 goals and contributed 6 assists in the Bundesliga this season and has the pace, the directness and the finishing ability to operate at the very highest level. Liverpool see him as a long-term answer to the Salah problem rather than a short-term fix. At 19 and improving rapidly, the ceiling is extremely high.
The competition is fierce. PSG have just won the Champions League and are looking to keep building. After winning back-to-back European titles Luis Enrique will want to maintain the quality of his squad and Diomande is exactly the kind of young talent he has built PSG around. Fabrizio Romano has confirmed that if Liverpool lose the race for Diomande to PSG, they will pivot to Bradley Barcola, who could leave the Parisians this summer. The transfer dominoes are stacked in a very interesting way.
The World Cup timing matters here more than it might first appear. Diomande will play for Ivory Coast in Group E against Germany, Ecuador and Curacao. If he has a brilliant tournament his value only goes up and any deal becomes harder to finalise. Liverpool clearly understand this which is why they are pushing to get something agreed before June 11. Leipzig know it too, which is why they are in no rush and holding firm at €100 million. The next ten days could define Liverpool's entire summer transfer window.
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