Liverpool Pursue PSG Winger Ibrahim Mbaye as Attack Reshapes
Liverpool have sounded out a deal for Paris Saint-Germain’s teenage winger Ibrahim Mbaye, with the 18-year-old Senegal international understood to be keen on a move to Anfield.
Mbaye, a right-sided forward by trade, sits high on a list of wide targets as Liverpool make the flanks the defining theme of Andoni Iraola’s first transfer window on Merseyside. The club want five wingers in place by the end of the window, with one of those earmarked as a younger project player to develop. Mbaye fits that brief perfectly.
The interest is serious enough for Liverpool to have explored the conditions of a deal, but not yet at the stage of a formal bid. That mirrors the situation with his PSG team-mate Bradley Barcola, another player firmly admired at Anfield. Liverpool like both, but the pursuit of Mbaye is said to be completely independent of any potential move for Barcola.
And the numbers around Barcola are eye-watering. PSG’s £145m valuation makes any move for the Frenchman a major undertaking, the sort of fee that would shape an entire window. Mbaye, by contrast, represents a different profile: high ceiling, lower cost, and the potential to grow into a leading role rather than arrive as one.
Liverpool could yet try to do both types of deal – Mbaye plus a more seasoned wide option – but the financial reality around Barcola currently makes that scenario difficult to execute.
Life after Salah
The urgency on Liverpool’s right flank is obvious. Mohamed Salah, the club legend who defined an era from that side of the pitch, departed at the end of last season. Replacing his goals is one task; replacing his presence is another.
Victor Munoz has already walked through the door this summer, adding one piece to Iraola’s new attacking puzzle. Mbaye would be another, a player who brings raw pace and directness off the right, offering a different kind of threat as Liverpool recalibrate their front line.
For Iraola, the wingers are not an accessory to his system; they are the system. His philosophy leans on aggressive, high-tempo wide play, with forwards who can stretch the pitch, press ferociously and attack space. That is why Liverpool’s recruitment team have zeroed in on this part of the squad as the defining priority of the window.
A record-breaking rise
Mbaye’s story at PSG has moved quickly. He came through the club’s academy and made his senior debut in August 2024 as a 16-year-old, a clear signal of how highly he is rated in Paris.
Internationally, his path has been just as striking. After representing France at youth level, he switched allegiance to Senegal and made his senior debut in November 2025. The decision paid off in spectacular fashion at the 2026 World Cup.
On that stage, Mbaye wrote his name into the history books. In Senegal’s 3-1 defeat to France, he became the youngest African ever to score at a World Cup, finding the net at 18 years and 143 days. It was a goal in a losing cause, but a moment that announced him to a global audience and underlined why Europe’s elite are tracking his development so closely.
For Liverpool, those details matter. They are not just looking for a body to fill a gap on the depth chart. They want a winger who can grow into the demands of Anfield, carry the weight of big nights, and eventually shoulder responsibility in a front line that has already been rebuilt once.
Mbaye is not yet that finished article. He does not need to be. That, in many ways, is the point.
As Iraola and Liverpool’s hierarchy reshape the attack for a post-Salah era, the question is no longer whether they will bet on youth in wide areas – it is which young winger they will choose to build the next chapter around.
