Liverpool 'alerted' to sudden availability of PSG star

Stuart Telford

• Updated: 29 Apr 2023 13:32 BST
• 3 min read

Liverpool have identified Paris Saint-Germain's Renato Sanches as a possible solution to their midfield woes having publicly pulled out of the race to sign Jude Bellingham from Borussia Dortmund.

Bellingham has been one of Jurgen Klopp's top transfer targets since at least last summer, but with Dortmund holding out for at least €120 million for the England midfielder, he is out of the Reds' reach.

Liverpool are set for an overhaul next summer, and more than one body might be needed in midfield with James Milner reportedly offered a contract by Brighton, Naby Keita available on a free and Thiago increasingly beset by injury.

READ: Liverpool add TWO top midfielders to summer transfer shortlist

Klopp tried to sign Sanches before he joined PSG from Lille last summer, but since then the former Benfica and Bayern Munich man has found himself on the bench behind Marco Verratti, Vitinha, Fabian Ruiz and Carlos Soler.

With his path to first-team minutes blocked, and former Lille boss Christophe Galtier likely sacked by PSG at the end of the season, it is understood the French champions would be ready to cash in.

"The French giants are planning a major rebuild this summer and have placed the 25-year-old on a lengthy list of players that could leave the club at the end of the season," report Football Insider.

"The Reds are looking to overhaul their midfield department ahead of the 2023/24 campaign and have been alerted by Sanches' sudden availability."

READ: What is the Golden Boy award? Shortlist, rules and past winners

Sanches is valued at €22.7m by FootballTransfers' in-house algorithm, so would leave considerably more budget left over than Bellingham should he agree to a move to Anfield.

Sanches had a brief spell in English football on loan to Swansea from Bayern, where he became infamous for trying to pass to an electronic advertising billboard.

He has shone either side of that, though, winning Euro 2016 with Portugal and that year's Golden Boy, as well as Ligue 1 at PSG's expense in 2021.