Report: Liverpool ‘on standby’ for ‘greatest talent’; it may require one player to leave first | OneFootball

Report: Liverpool ‘on standby’ for ‘greatest talent’; it may require one player to leave first | OneFootball

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Empire of the Kop

·22 Juli 2025

Report: Liverpool ‘on standby’ for ‘greatest talent’; it may require one player to leave first

Gambar artikel:Report: Liverpool ‘on standby’ for ‘greatest talent’; it may require one player to leave first

Liverpool reportedly remain ‘on standby’ to launch a transfer offensive for one rumoured target, depending on the possibility of outgoings from Anfield.

In June, L’Equipe reported that the Reds held talks with the representatives of Malick Fofana shortly after the Lyon winger changed over to Brazilian agency Roc Nation, with the 20-year-old valued at €50m (£42.7m) by the Ligue 1 club.


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Those links have seemingly gone quiet over the past month as Richard Hughes focused on getting a deal done for Hugo Ekitike, whose £79m move from Eintracht Frankfurt is set to become official this week, although the Belgian youngster hasn’t completely slipped off the radar in L4.

Liverpool remain ‘on standby’ for Malick Fofana

On Tuesday lunchtime, transfer insider Sacha Tavolieri took to X with an update on Liverpool’s pursuit of the Lyon forward.

He claimed that the Reds remain ‘on standby’ for Fofana and are ‘expected to move’ for the 20-year-old – who’s ‘highly-rated’ by the Merseysiders’ scouting department – if Federico Chiesa returns to Serie A.

As we exclusively reported for Empire of the Kop on Monday, no fewer than six clubs from the Italian top flight (including champions Napoli, Juventus and AS Roma) have designs on bringing our number 14 back to his homeland.

Gambar artikel:Report: Liverpool ‘on standby’ for ‘greatest talent’; it may require one player to leave first

(Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Fofana seems to be a talent but mightn’t be ready for Liverpool just yet

Despite only turning 20 in March, Fofana has already surpassed 100 senior club appearances between Gent and Lyon, scoring 11 times for the latter in all competitions last season (Transfermarkt).

Emilio Ferrara, who coached the youngster at under-21 level at his first club, hailed him as ‘the greatest talent I ever trained’, and the forward has stood out for a few of his underlying performance metrics over the past 12 months.

As per FBref, he ranked among the top 2% of wingers in Europe’s five main leagues in 2024/25 for progressive carries per game (6.72), as well as the top 10% for non-penalty goals per 90 minutes (0.47) and the top 16% with his match average for touches in the attacking penalty area (6.08).

There certainly appears to be an excellent forward in there somewhere, but Fofana is still a rough diamond who – in all likelihood – doesn’t seem quite ready to challenge the likes of Cody Gakpo, Mo Salah and Ekitike for a starting berth at Liverpool.

If the Reds were to part with Chiesa and/or Luis Diaz this summer, then a move for the Lyon youngster might make more sense. However, we’d rather see the Italian given another season to prove himself than being turfed out to make way for a new arrival.

The Belgian winger couldn’t be described as Plan A for the Premier League champions, although the persistence of the links would indicate that Hughes isn’t ready to close the book on him just yet.

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