Liverpool Targets Barcola as Salah's Era Ends
Liverpool’s search for a new right‑side talisman has zeroed in on Paris. With Mohamed Salah gone after nine gilded years at Anfield, Bradley Barcola has moved to the top of the club’s summer wishlist.
The 23-year-old Frenchman has emerged as the preferred option as Liverpool try to reshape their attack for the Andoni Iraola era. The club icon has departed by mutual agreement, the goals and memories now consigned to history. The question is who carries that weight next. Inside Anfield, the answer is increasingly clear.
From Diomande to Barcola
Liverpool’s recruitment team have been busy, and not always successful.
They pushed hard for Ivory Coast winger Yan Diomande, tabling a bid believed to be around £85 million. RB Leipzig said no. That rejection now looks like a staging post on Diomande’s path to Real Madrid, who are poised to pay in excess of £100m after his World Cup exploits, despite heavy pressure from PSG.
Liverpool then explored other avenues. An initial approach went in for Monaco’s Maghnes Akliouche, another young wide forward coveted by PSG and the subject of multiple bids from the French champions. At the same time, Liverpool triggered the £34.5m release clause of Spain winger Victor Munoz at Osasuna — their only signing so far as Iraola’s reign begins to take shape.
The pattern is clear: young, technical, aggressive in the press, with upside. Barcola fits the profile as neatly as any of them, but comes with a different level of price and pressure.
PSG’s price and a restless forward
Reports over the weekend painted the scale of the challenge. PSG are said to want around £145m for Barcola, a figure inflated by a market that has just seen Chelsea and Manchester City pay £117m for Morgan Rogers and £116m for Elliot Anderson respectively.
Those numbers have not gone unnoticed in Paris. Nor on Merseyside.
Barcola’s situation, though, gives Liverpool a sliver of leverage. He is understood to be keen to leave the Parc des Princes this window and has no desire to extend a contract that runs until 2028. The frustration has been building: back-to-back Champions League finals under Luis Enrique, both started on the bench. For a player of his ambition, watching the biggest nights unfold from the sidelines cuts deep.
On the pitch, his output is already that of a front-line attacker. Last season he scored 13 goals and added seven assists in 49 appearances across all competitions for a PSG side that swept aside domestic opposition. At the World Cup in North America, he struck three times in eight games as France laboured to a disappointing fourth-place finish.
Those numbers, and that trajectory, explain why Liverpool are so interested — and why PSG feel emboldened to demand a fee that would reshape any club’s budget.
Liverpool ready their move
For now, the two clubs sit a long way apart in their valuations. Liverpool see an opportunity; PSG see a cornerstone of their future or, at the very least, a premium asset in a distorted market.
The next step is coming. According to Sky Sports, Liverpool have prepared a first offer for Barcola after holding preliminary talks with his representatives and are now ready to make an official approach to PSG.
A new era at Anfield needs a new right flank. Whether Barcola becomes that figure will depend on how far Liverpool are willing to push — and how much PSG truly want to test the limits of this wild summer market.
