Liverpool step up Victor Osimhen transfer interest as Jurgen Klopp keen - EXCLUSIVE - 7M sport

Liverpool step up Victor Osimhen transfer interest as Jurgen Klopp keen - EXCLUSIVE



Posted Sunday, December 29, 2019 by Express.co.uk

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is keen on Lille striker Victor Osimhen.

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp is stepping up his interest in Lille hitman Victor Osimhen after ordering detailed scouting reports. Klopp is keen on the Nigerian international, who has already scored 13 goals in all competitions for the Ligue 1 side so far this season.

Osimhen only joined Lille in July after they sold Pepe to Arsenal and was named Ligue 1 Player of the Month in October.

He scored 20 goals for Belgian side Charleroi, on loan from Wolfsburg, last season and has continued in the same rich vein of form in this campaign.

Klopp is looking to bolster his striking options especially as Mohamed Salah isn’t as deadly in front of goal as he was two seasons ago.

Salah, who has been linked with Real Madrid, scored 44 goals in his first season at Anfield then 27 in all competitions last season and has managed 13 so far in this campaign.

Liverpool step up Victor Osimhen transfer interest as Jurgen Klopp keen - EXCLUSIVE
Liverpool step up Victor Osimhen transfer interest as Jurgen Klopp keen - EXCLUSIVE (Image: GETTY)

Liverpool step up Victor Osimhen transfer interest as Jurgen Klopp keen - EXCLUSIVE
Liverpool step up Victor Osimhen transfer interest as Jurgen Klopp keen - EXCLUSIVE (Image: GETTY)

Several Premier League clubs have taken a look at Osimhen who has scored four goals in nine appearances for the Super Eagles.

Lille accept that it is only a matter of time before they will be forced to cash in on Osimhen but would like to keep him at the Stade Pierre Mauroy until the summer.

Reports from France that Lille will not consider bids for the 20-year-old in January.

Osimhen is under contract for another four-and-a-half years having penned a five-year deal when he joined.

Liverpool step up Victor Osimhen transfer interest as Jurgen Klopp keen - EXCLUSIVE
Liverpool step up Victor Osimhen transfer interest as Jurgen Klopp keen - EXCLUSIVE (Image: GETTY)

His goals see Lille sat fourth in the Ligue 1 table, albeit 14 points off of league leaders Paris Saint-Germain having played one more game.

Liverpool have been widely linked with summer moves for Borussia Dortmund wide-man Jadon Sancho and Paris Saint-Germain forward Kylian Mbappe.

But Klopp has played down such speculation, insisting of Mbappe: ”Buying this calibre of player is difficult. I don't see any club at the moment who can buy Kylian Mbappe from PSG.

"I don't see any club, that is how it is. And we are involved in the clubs that cannot do it. It is as easy as that.

Liverpool step up Victor Osimhen transfer interest as Jurgen Klopp keen - EXCLUSIVE
Liverpool step up Victor Osimhen transfer interest as Jurgen Klopp keen - EXCLUSIVE (Image: GETTY)

"OK, from a sporting point of view, there are not a lot of reasons to not sign him. What a player he is.

"But it is about the money of course. No chance. Absolutely no chance. Sorry for killing that story."

And on Sancho he said: “He’s a very good player. I have no clue where these kind of things are coming from, but it cannot come from us because we never speak about it.

"If we would be involved, nobody would know about it apart from a person who wouldn’t speak about it. There's nothing to say.

Liverpool step up Victor Osimhen transfer interest as Jurgen Klopp keen - EXCLUSIVE
Liverpool step up Victor Osimhen transfer interest as Jurgen Klopp keen - EXCLUSIVE (Image: GETTY)

"Cost? That’s one issue, 100 per cent that would be an issue. But there’s nothing to say about it.

"I know how it sounds, but I cannot change that. There’s nothing to say about it, which can mean there’s absolutely nothing to say about it."

Liverpool have already announced one new signing in recent weeks, with Takumi Minamino joining from Red Bull Salzburg in January.

The Japanese midfielder will become the first ever Asian to play for the Merseyside club in the Premier League era and cost only £7.25million.



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