Liverpool to break transfer record after RB Leipzig say no to €100m Diomande deal | OneFootball

Liverpool have been knocked back in their opening gambit for Yan Diomande.

Multiple sources have reported that the outgoing Premier League champions bid a total reaching €100m for the RB Leipzig forward.

Richard Hughes was willing to pay €90m for the 19-year-old - guaranteeing another €10m in add-ons. But that offer was swatted back by the energy drinks giant - despite earlier valuations of the forward hovering around the €100m mark.

It’s clear that Leipzig are now playing hardball over the Cote d’Ivoire international and with good reason.

RB Leipzig playing hardball over Diomande deal

The Bundesliga side contracted Diomande until 2030 when they signed him from Leganes last summer. That puts them in total control over his future.

While the Red Bulls would welcome the opportunity to tie Diomande down to a new contract they would also benefit from driving his price up.

And the message has been put out according to a report in TEAMtalk that any deal for Diomande will require a Bundesliga-record fee.

LFC could require €148m for Diomande

Borussia Dortmund sold Ousmane Dembele to Barcelona back in 2017 for €148m in the post-Neymar landscape. And Leipzig have got one eye on the Ballon d’Or winner’s prior valuation when it comes to pricing Diomande.

“If Diomande is to leave this summer, it could require a fee approaching the Bundesliga transfer record,” the report reads.

“That benchmark remains the €148million (£128m, $169m) received by Borussia Dortmund when Ousmane Dembele joined Barcelona in 2017.”

Richard Hughes to break transfer record again

It means Richard Hughes will need to break the British transfer record once again - having done so twice last summer. Liverpool signed Florian Wirtz for a fee reaching £116m from Bayer Leverkusen and later in the window brought in Alexander Isak for £126m.

A £128m deal for Diomande would eclipse both deals.

“Any such deal would break the fee the Reds spent last summer on Wirtz, while it would also potentially break the fee spent on Alexander Isak,” the report reads.

It remains to be seen where this deal ends up as there are several stakeholders involved.