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An agent has revealed Liverpool have held talks with his client and he could be an ideal player for Jürgen Klopp who has already made his conditions clear.
Amid all the talk of Liverpool’s rebuild at senior level and who could be leaving for pastures new, little has been made of speculation surrounding the club building for the future. But behind the scenes, Liverpool is still actively working on recruiting exciting young talent and one such move has recently been claimed by an agent.
Gerald Sagoe has been speaking to TuttoMercatoWeb about the future of his client and one of the young stars of the U20 AFCON this year Pape Demba Diop. In that interview, Sagoe revealed Liverpool held talks with him over Diop, and the player’s future is still up in the air.
“Towards the end of last season while he was busy with the national team we were contacted by Liverpool and we had preliminary meetings in Paris,” the agent revealed.
“Three French teams have expressed interest and some Italian teams, including Napoli, have expressed interest. Together with my lawyer Alessandro Mazzucato, we will have some appointments in Germany in the next few weeks. Let’s see what happens.”
If correct, Liverpool’s interest in Diop will come as a surprise. The Reds are known for heavily scouting youth tournaments but they rarely make concrete efforts to sign players who catch the eye. The last time Liverpool did something similar on the back of an AFCON youth tournament was when Taiwo Awoniyi was recruited by the club almost a decade ago back in 2015.
Diop though could be an interesting player to break that eight-year-long trend with. The Senegalese midfielder absolutely dominated the U20 AFCON this year finishing as the top-scorer of the tournament with five goals in six games and ultimately helping his country to lift the trophy.
He also netted at the U20 World Cup against Israel but was unable to prevent his side from crashing out of that tournament in the group stages.
A midfielder who can play in between the lines and as a box-to-box player with excellent vision and ball control, Diop is the kind of player who would suit Jürgen Klopp’s style — particularly because he has a high defensive work-rate, and is very efficient in providing stability in the midfield.
In the African Cup of Nations, he averaged an impressive 4.12 interceptions per 90 as per Wyscout including an impressive eight against Tunisia in the semi-final. On top of that, he also averaged 7.87 recoveries per 90 and won 63.2 per cent of his 6.8 defensive duels.
His ability to be a poacher and end up in goal-scoring situations combined with this defensive output gives him the kind of unique traits Liverpool look for. Only 19 years old, Diop moved to Europe from Senegal just a year ago.
At club level, his first campaign has been settling in and getting used to the European environment. It did not help that his side was fighting for relegation all season in Belgium. As a result, he made just one appearance for Zulte Waregem last season in a 30-minute cameo, which was not enough to showcase his talent.
But thankfully, he has shone at international level which is why now so many clubs are vying for his services and looking to take advantage of the fact that Zulte Waregem was relegated from the Belgian top flight.
With his contract expiring in 2024, for Diop, the objective is clear. Earlier this summer, he was asked about speculation about his future by Wiw Sport and the Liverpool target said the following:
“I am aware of the rumors like everyone else. Sometimes I call my agent for information, but he can’t always confirm. However, there are clubs interested,” Diop said.
“But, it is important to remember that the transfer market has just started and some negotiations can take time. So we have to stay tuned and see what happens between now and the end of this summer transfer window. For the moment, my priority is to play. I want to be in a team where I can have playing time, whether in Zulte or elsewhere. At the end of the day, I just want to play.”
The last bit will be difficult for him to attain at Liverpool, but given the midfield rebuild around the squad and Europa League football, there might just be enough minutes offered to tempt the young Senegalese midfielder or there is the possibility of working out a loan solution to help him bridge the gap en route to Anfield.
However, with Diop scoring a hat-trick for Zulte in the club’s first pre-season match and also catching the eye against Club Brugge in a 1-0 victory before going on to score again in a 3-3 draw with Genk, he is going to be difficult to tempt away. For Liverpool, his involvement is even more motivation to try to poach an exciting young talent in world football.
