Why Liverpool are ready to make Barcola third £100m signing Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Bradley Barcola has helped Paris St-Germain win the Champions League in the past two seasonsByMichael EmonsBBC Sport journalistPublished16 minutes agoLiverpool have twice paid more than £100m for players – midfielder Florian Wirtz and striker Alexander Isak – and could be about to pay that much once again.
Paris St-Germain and France winger Bradley Barcola has become a main target for Liverpool, with the Reds prepared to pay about £100m, while PSG are holding out for somewhere near £145m.
Liverpool, who finished fifth in the Premier League last season, 25 points behind champions Arsenal, could eventually end up paying Bayer Leverkusen £116m for Wirtz, while they shelled out a club-record £125m to sign Isak from Newcastle in September.
And they could be about to break the bank yet again to bring in 23-year-old Barcola, who was part of France’s squad at the World Cup.
The club trophies are beginning to stack up already for the fast, direct, skilful winger who loves to run at and an opponent and dribble past them.
He came on as a second-half substitute in both the past two Champions League finals, when PSG beat Inter Milan 5-0 in 2024-25 and then in May when they edged past Arsenal on penalties to retain their title.
Barcola moved to PSG from Lyon in 2023 for a revealed £38.5m and has since also won three Ligue One titles, the French Cup twice, as well as the Uefa Super Cup and the Fifa Intercontinental Cup.
He is right footed, although he prefers to play on the left wing, but can also play on the right or through the middle. However, with PSG also having Georgia’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and France’s Desire Doue as wide options, Barcola does not play 90 minutes every match so a move to Anfield would give him more playing time.
With Mohamed Salah leaving on a free transfer at the end of last season having scored 257 goals in a hugely successful nine-year spell with the Reds, Liverpool clearly need to strengthen their attack.
France forward Hugo Ekitike ruptured his Achilles tendon in April and is not expected to play again in 2026, while Cody Gakpo, another who can play on the left and in the middle, has been linked with a move to Tottenham, although Liverpool say they do not want to sell.
Barcola has already played 28 times for his country and scored three times in this summer’s World Cup, including in the 6-4 loss to England in the third-fourth play-off.
However, like at club level, his game time was limited because of the skills of his 21-year-old PSG team-mate Doue.
Boss Didier Deschamps stuck with Ballon d’Or holder Ousmane Dembele on the right and rotated Barcola and Doue, with both men starting four of France’s eight World Cup matches, but never in the same game.
