Liverpool have reached an agreement in principle with Paris Saint-Germain to sign winger Bradley Barcola, in a deal reported to be worth just over £100m and potentially rising to £120m with add-ons. The move, still pending a medical, would make the 22-year-old France international the club's marquee addition on the flanks this summer as they continue searching for attacking reinforcements following Mohamed Salah's now-settled dispute with the club.
The pursuit of Barcola comes after a lengthy transfer saga. Reports note that roughly nine months passed between Salah's public complaints in December, when he said he felt he had been "thrown under the bus" by the club, and Liverpool's agreement with PSG. Although relations with Salah eventually calmed, replacing his output and influence on the right flank has proven a difficult task for Liverpool's recruitment team.
Barcola is naturally more of a left-sided winger, which means his arrival may not fully resolve Liverpool's need on the right, a spot they had hoped to fill elsewhere. This summer they have already brought in Victor Munoz, a comparatively inexpensive signing who made his debut as a substitute at Newcastle in the position Salah long occupied.
New Liverpool manager Andoni Iraola, who demands wingers capable of stretching defenses and contributing defensively, admitted he would have liked his wide options in place before the season began. "I definitely would have preferred to have the wingers ready on the first day," Iraola said. "The same for every position. But I understand that it's not easy in the market and the wingers that we are trying to sign, they are of a high level. They are wanted by a lot of clubs, and I think it's very difficult also for the club to close those situations. But as long as we arrive at the right place at the end and we sign the right players, I think it would be worth it even if they haven't been with us in pre-season."
Liverpool's attempts to sign wingers this summer have not always succeeded. An offer worth up to £86m for RB Leipzig's Yan Diomande fell short, with the Ivorian instead joining Real Madrid for £115m—another sign of how much prices for wide players have risen. By comparison, Salah joined Liverpool for just £36.5m, a fee that now looks remarkably low. Chelsea's £117m purchase of Morgan Rogers is also thought to have influenced the market. PSG had initially valued Barcola at £145m before negotiations eventually produced a lower agreed fee.
Beyond Barcola, Liverpool have also made two bids for Brighton's Yankuba Minteh and expressed interest in Crystal Palace's Ismaila Sarr—both predominantly right-sided wingers, unlike Barcola. Iraola explained the qualities he is looking for: "We need wingers who can make the difference, who can be the man who can make the difference in isolation, who can attack the spaces, who can also do the defensive work that we are going to demand from them in terms of pressing or sometimes following the full-backs. And also if they can provide numbers then it's perfect."
Barcola's numbers last season were significant. He scored 11 league goals for PSG in Ligue 1, and across all competitions in an extended 2024-25 campaign he registered 21 goals and 21 assists. He also scored three goals at the recent World Cup, despite having been pushed down the pecking order at PSG by Désiré Doué. Liverpool have long tracked Barcola, dating back to a 2022 friendly against Lyon in Dubai during the World Cup period.
Iraola acknowledged the difficulty of finding a complete package in the current market. "It is difficult to find someone who can tick all the boxes, but it is what we are trying to do," he said, as Liverpool hope Barcola can go some way toward filling the void left by one of the club's greatest attacking players.
Based on reporting from The Independent (football).