Liverpool reach ‘agreement’ to sign £88m Salah replacement as Bayern ‘pivot’ to £65m Reds forward

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·23 febbraio 2026

Liverpool reach ‘agreement’ to sign £88m Salah replacement as Bayern ‘pivot’ to £65m Reds forward

Liverpool have a ‘personal agreement’ with Bayern Munich-linked RB Leipzig winger Yan Diomande, according to reports in Germany.

Diomande is perhaps the most in-demand young attacker in Europe and is valued at around £88million.

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The Ivory Coast international has been linked with Premier League sides Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United in recent months, with Bayern also very interested.

He has registered eight goals and six assists in 22 Bundesliga appearances this term and could be the next big-money sale for Leipzig.

Capable of playing on either wing, Diomande is one for both the present and the future, and is reportedly being lined up as Mohamed Salah’s long-term replacement at Liverpool.

The 19-year-old could also be the elite attacker Arsenal need, but Arne Slot’s side appear to be leading the race for his signature.

Bayern are, of course, in the mix, as they routinely look to sign the best Bundesliga players from their domestic rivals.

However, the German champions are said to be facing rejection from Diomande and could instead turn their attention to a Liverpool player as an alternative – a move that would ironically help fund the teenager’s arrival at Anfield.

According to a Bayern source on X (via CaughtOffside), Cody Gakpo is a target after Diomande’s ‘rejection’, with the club believing he could thrive in “the Bundesliga’s open transitional spaces”, much like former Reds forward Luis Diaz has this campaign.

It is claimed the Bavarian giants are considering pivoting to Gakpo, as members of the club’s board believe Liverpool hold a personal agreement with Diomande.

The report states:

Internally at Bayern there is growing discussion, as I exclusively revealed weeks ago following Yan Diomande’s rejection, about pivoting toward Cody Gakpo as the alternative on the left wing, with influential voices inside the club convinced he would thrive in the Bundesliga’s open transitional spaces in a similar way to Luis Diaz. What has added a new layer of tension in recent days are fresh indications, including signals interpreted from contacts around Gakpo’s representatives, that have led some board members to increasingly believe the Premier League club holding a personal agreement with Diomande could in fact be Liverpool, although this remains an internal reading of the situation rather than confirmed information and is still being handled with caution at executive level.

Liverpool could reportedly receive £65m for Gakpo, who has registered seven goals and four assists in 35 appearances this term, which would ‘effectively fund’ the signing of the player who rejected Bayern.

The ironic twist is that Bayern could end up indirectly financing that very move by paying up to £65 million, around €75 million, to sign Cody Gakpo from Liverpool, effectively funding the transfer of the player who rejected them in the first place, a scenario that underlines how quickly leverage can shift at the top of the market. Even if inside Sabener Straße there are figures insisting they would ultimately be comfortable with such an outcome provided the investment guarantees immediate quality and decisive output on the pitch.