Liverpool are amongst the clubs said to be interested but Leipzig aren’t eager to cash in on the World Cup star.
Most of the headlines around Liverpool’s potential summer transfer business have focused on the need for the club to bring in two high-quality midfielders to refresh an aging core in order to ensure they’re back in the picture for silverware in 2023-24.
However, with whispers that Joël Matip could be set to depart and Joe Gomez’ struggles to regain his best form, there is also likely to be a need at centre half. And on the centre half front, there is perhaps no bigger potential target in 2023 than Joško Gvardiol.
The 21-year-old Croatia and RB Leipzig star was a standout at the World Cup and has been impressive for his club, and the boyhood Liverpool fan has been tenuously linked with both moving on this summer—and potentially to joining Jürgen Klopp’s Reds.
Given he has a release clause set at €110M that kicks in summer of 2024 and that Leipzig have no particular need to cash in on him, it seems a long shot, but this week the transfer ambulance chasers have been looking to stoke a bit of Red hope.
It’s only Wednesday but already here we go hype man Fabrizio Romano has suggested Liverpool are one of the Premier League’s interested parties along with Manchester City and Chelsea, and Florian Plettenberg has said Gvardiol is on Liverpool’s list.
Both sources are best known for acting as quantity over quality rumour aggregators more than anything and shouldn’t be counted on to provide the insight local journalists might, but it’s clear that Gvardiol to Liverpool is now a story in transfer land.
From a Liverpool perspective, though, there remain questions as to how the club afford a player who would cost around £100M in a summer when they’ll already need to spend a similar fee on Jude Bellingham and also a second big midfield signing.
