Liverpool have agreed a British record transfer fee in the region of £110million for Moises Caicedo as Jurgen Klopp attempts to reinforce his midfield on the eve of the new Premier League season.
The PA news agency understands Liverpool have swooped in and had a substantial offer accepted for the 21-year-old Ecuador international, who was attracting significant interest from Chelsea this summer.
Brighton held firm on their valuation of a player who joined them for just £4m from Ecuadorian side Independiente del Valle in 2021, and it remains to be seen whether Chelsea will match Liverpool’s bid.
The fee is upwards of the previous British record of £107m that Chelsea paid for Enzo Fernandez in January and dwarfs Liverpool’s own highest transfer payment of £75m for Virgil van Dijk in 2018.
Klopp has seen Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, Naby Keita and James Milner depart the club this summer but Liverpool have signed Caicedo’s former Brighton team-mate Alexis Mac Allister for £35m in June.
The Reds have also brought in Dominik Szoboszlai from RB Leipzig but, after missing out on Jude Bellingham – who joined Real Madrid in June in a deal that could rise to £115m with add-ons – Klopp is keen to get the Caicedo transfer over the line.
Ahead of Sunday’s trip to Chelsea for both sides’ Premier League opener, Klopp said: “I can confirm the deal with (Brighton) is agreed, whatever that means because we want the player and not any kind of agreement, we will see.
“We are club that doesn’t have endless resources, we didn’t expect a couple of things happening in the summer, like Henderson and Fabinho (leaving), stuff like this.
“We didn’t think about that before the summer, to be honest, and then it happened. We gave (attempting to sign Bellingham) a go and the club was really stretched. We will see (what happens with Caicedo).”
As for whether Caicedo will undergo a medical in Merseyside on Friday or if signing the youngster would be Liverpool’s final business of the summer window, Klopp was tight-lipped.
“I’ve said what I know,” he added. “Let’s do it step by step, let’s see what happens in the next hours or days.”
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Liverpool set to break British transfer record with £110m Moises Caicedo deal