Talks held: Liverpool ‘seriously in the race’ for ‘very clever’ Bundesliga ace who Slot craves | OneFootball

Liverpool are understood to be ‘seriously in the race’ for a centre-forward who could cost upwards of £80m this summer.

The Bundesliga has been a popular market for the Reds in recent years and that looks set to be the case yet again as Richard Hughes seeks to execute a double raid on Bayer Leverkusen for Jeremie Frimpong and Florian Wirtz.

Another star of the German top flight who’s reportedly on LFC’s radar is Eintracht Frankfurt striker Hugo Ekitike, who could be at the centre of a transfer tug-of-war between the Premier League champions and a domestic rival.

Liverpool in talks to sign Ekitike

Sky Germany reporter Florian Plettenberg took to X on Wednesday to share an update on Liverpool’s interest in the 22-year-old, who both Arne Slot and FSG’s chief executive of football Michael Edwards are eager to recruit.

The journalist posted: ‘The next big target from the Bundesliga: Understand Liverpool are now seriously in the race for Hugo Ekitike! Talks have taken place. Slot/Edwards keen on him.

‘The biggest rival at the moment: Chelsea. Eintracht Frankfurt have not yet received an offer. Markus Krösche still demand [sic] €100 million [£83.8m].’

(Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images)

What qualities could Ekitike bring to Liverpool?

There could be a gap in the Liverpool squad for a centre-forward this summer if Darwin Nunez is sold – on Wednesday, we exclusively reported on Empire of the Kop that the Uruguayan is seeking a ‘fresh start’ elsewhere.

Ekitike could be a shrewd acquisition if he can replicate the form that he showed in helping to secure a place in the 2025/26 Champions League for Eintracht Frankfurt, having scored 22 goals in all competitions this season and also supplied 12 assists.

Franck Chalencon – who coached the French forward when he was in Reims’ academy – described him as a ‘very clever player’ with an ‘instinct for goal’ (TNT Sports), and that praise is borne out on the 22-year-old’s statistics over the past 12 months in comparison to other strikers in Europe’s five main leagues.

As per FBref, Ekitike ranks among the top 7% of that specified subset for shots per 90 minutes with 3.74, along with the top 6% for shot-creating actions per game (3.5). He’s also very direct in possession, featuring in the 96th percentile for progressive carries (3.04) and successful take-ons (1.9) per match.

With Wirtz set to cost more than £100m, spending another £84m or so on the Eintracht Frankfurt striker mightn’t leave much in reserve for further transfer activity at Liverpool this summer unless significant sums are banked from player sales.

However, FSG wouldn’t be entering talks over the Frenchman if they weren’t convinced that he’d be an enormous asset to the Reds, so let’s see how this story develops over the coming days and weeks.