Liverpool will have to pay £54m if they want to sign Flamengo midfielder Joao Gomes.
That’s according to Mundo Deportivo. Citing information from Brazilian journalist Vene Casagrande, they claim that the reported Liverpool target has had the clause written into his new contract.
Flamengo reportedly ‘do not plan to negotiate’ this fee. As a result, any interested club have been told they’ll have to pay the full amount.
At the moment, those interested clubs are said to be Liverpool, Real Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen. Madrid are claimed to be willing to part with £45m to land Gomes. As things stand though, that won’t be enough.
Liverpool looking ahead to January
It’s barely three weeks since the closure of the summer transfer market. But things have already started to heat up ahead of the January window.
For Liverpool, their need for new midfield recruits is still pretty immediate. They may have brought in Athur Melo on a hastily arranged loan deal, but that’s merely seen as a short-term measure.
As a result, plenty of names are already being thrown around in connection to the Reds. One of those being more frequently mentioned is Gomes.
The 21-year-old has risen to prominence for Flamengo recently and is starting to attract attention. His star is now shining brightly enough that the Brazilian club saw fit to tie him to a new five-year deal this week.
If the reported clause is correct, then that may be enough to put Liverpool off for now. It seems unlikely that they’d be willing to bet so much on a player without any experience of European football.
But Alisson Becker is one of those who have called on clubs to gamble more on talent straight from South America.
If Liverpool have seen enough in Gomes’ short career so far, then perhaps they will heed their goalkeeper’s words. He is a player who has been described as ‘unique’ by manager Paulo Sousa via Globo after all.
Should he live up to billing, then £54m wouldn’t seem like such an astronomical fee. Plenty to weigh up for Liverpool.
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