Liverpool Eye €50 Million Defender Finn Jeltsch

Liverpool are circling a €50 million deal – and the target is one of Europe’s most talked‑about young defenders.

The club’s recruitment plans for 2027 are already taking shape, and they have to. The squad inherited from Richard Hughes has obvious gaps, with the defensive core looking particularly fragile once you peer beyond the next 12 months.

Centre-back puzzle looming

On paper, Liverpool are well stocked at centre-back. In reality, every option comes with a question mark.

Virgil van Dijk is out of contract next summer. Joe Gomez is in the same situation. Ronald Araujo is only on loan and would cost €50m to keep permanently.

Strip those away and the long-term picture is stark. Jeremy Jacquet and Giovanni Leoni are the only centre-backs tied to the club beyond this season.

Both are talented. Neither is proven.

Jacquet, the elder of the two at 21, is returning from shoulder surgery. Leoni, still just 19, has spent roughly a year sidelined by a serious knee injury. Between them, they represent promise rather than certainty.

So Liverpool will have to go back into the market in 2027. And it sounds like they already have a name at the top of a very modern shortlist.

Liverpool tracking Finn Jeltsch

According to TuttoJuve, Liverpool are in the race for Finn Jeltsch, the Stuttgart defender who has just come off a breakout Bundesliga season.

The 19-year-old forced his way into the Stuttgart side and stayed there long enough to stand out across Europe’s major leagues. Last season he was one of only 14 teenage centre-backs to log at least 1,000 minutes in the top five leagues. Raise the bar to 1,500 minutes and the pool shrinks to 10 – with Jeltsch rated around the fifth-best of that group by the Value Adder model.

Those numbers explain Stuttgart’s stance. They are not interested in a bargain sale. The reported asking price sits at €50m, and the competition is fierce.

Arsenal, Manchester United and Bayern Munich are all named as clubs tracking him. This is not a quiet chase. It is a full-scale fight for one of the most coveted young defenders on the continent.

Does another 20-year-old make sense?

That is where the dilemma starts for Liverpool.

On one hand, Jeltsch fits the profile: young, experienced at a high level, already delivering in a major league, and with the potential to anchor a defence for a decade.

On the other, Liverpool’s long-term centre-back group is already incredibly young. The only defenders certain to be at the club beyond this season have an average age of 20. Committing another €50m to a 20-year-old in 2027 would load even more responsibility onto an inexperienced unit.

A third young centre-back at that price? It feels like a gamble, no matter how high the ceiling.

Yet this is also where clubs increasingly believe the value lies – securing elite talent early, then trusting coaching and structure to carry them through the growing pains.

Liverpool are in the mix. Whether they actually pull the trigger on Jeltsch is another matter. For now, he is exactly what the market loves and what their future defence might need.

One to watch as 2027 creeps closer and the clock ticks on Van Dijk, Gomez and Araujo.