Liverpool in talks to buy £78m defender in January

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Liverpool will have to pay an enormous fee in order to sign Leny Yoro from Lille in January.

The Reds have been linked with a move for the 18-year-old ahead of the winter window. However, a stumbling blocked appeared to be Lille’s asking-price – reported to be around £43m.

Well, two weeks on from that claim, French outlet Le10Sport suggest that the Ligue 1 side will now ask for £78m in order to sell Yoro in January. A full £35m more than previously thought.

With that in mind, it’s thought that Lille’s chances of keeping the teenager this winter are ‘very high.’ Les Dogues are said to be determined to keep Yoro until the end of the season at least.

Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t currently fielding interest in the centre-back.

Despite their will to keep him in the short-term, it’s claimed that Lille are already speaking to Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United about a future move for Yoro. PSG are also said to be interested, but the English trio are reportedly ‘more advanced’ in their interest.

Lille looking for Yoro payday

At £78m, we can safely rule out any chance of Liverpool brining Yoro in over the course of the month.

It does seem as though the Reds hold genuine interest in the France U21 international, but certainly not at that price.

Maybe things could change if City or United make a concrete move to sign Yoro. That could jolt Liverpool into action.

Even then though, it sounds like an extraordinary amount to pay for a player with less than 40 senior appearances under his belt.

Although he’s played relatively little so far though, Yoro certainly has the look of a generational defender.

Having broken into Lille’s senior squad at just 16, the youngster only turned 18 in November. He’s got years ahead of him and already has a good amount of game time for his age.

Bringing him to Anfield now would mean Yoro could be given plenty of time to learn from the likes of Virgil van Dijk before stepping up to the starting XI.

But at that kind of fee, there’d be pressure on for the teenager to make an immediate impact. Let’s see just how highly Liverpool rate Yoro. We wouldn’t expect too much movement on this, though. Not unless there’s a massive and unexpected price drop anyway.