Liverpool's Plan for Salah's Successor: Diomande in Focus

Liverpool’s search for the heir to Mohamed Salah has moved into sharper focus, and a 19-year-old tormentor of defenders on the biggest stage is right at the heart of it.

Yan Diomande, the RB Leipzig winger lighting up the World Cup with Ivory Coast, has given Liverpool enormous encouragement over a move to Anfield. Behind the scenes, the club’s new sporting director Richard Hughes is convinced he has found the ideal long-term replacement for the Egyptian icon, who will leave at the end of the season after nine glittering years on Merseyside.

The problem? Leipzig know exactly what they’ve got – and they’re in no rush to cash in.

Leipzig dig in as price soars

Liverpool first made contact over Diomande back in December, when transfer talks were quietly opened with the Bundesliga club. Those conversations have not got any easier.

Leipzig are determined to keep their prize asset for at least one more season, gambling that his value will only rise. Any negotiation, sources insist, starts at around €100m (£87m, $116m) and could push towards €120m (£104m, $140m). That is Salah-level money for a teenager still at the start of his career.

Liverpool know they are paying for potential as much as end product. Leipzig know it too. That is why this will not be a quick or simple deal.

World Cup stage, Liverpool spotlight

Diomande’s price tag did not shrink after Sunday.

Thrown into the World Cup spotlight, he dazzled in Ivory Coast’s 1-0 win over Ecuador, repeatedly running at defenders and giving Arsenal’s Piero Hincapie a torrid afternoon. Four successful dribbles, constant menace, and the unmistakable look of a winger who relishes the one‑v‑one battle.

His national team coach, Emerse Fae, could barely disguise his admiration.

“Yan – what can I say? I can’t put it into words,” Fae said after the Group E victory. He praised Diomande’s talent, his work ethic, his team spirit, and his willingness to listen and learn from the coaching staff. For Fae, he is “easy to work with” and already has the quality to “give you the victory” while troubling a defender of Hincapie’s stature, a Champions League finalist.

Those are the kind of character references Liverpool like as much as the highlight reels.

‘Signing for Liverpool’? Not yet

The World Cup, though, has also turned Diomande into a magnet for transfer speculation.

“When we were in France, during the preparation, journalists told me he was about to sign with PSG,” Fae revealed. “Here, they tell me he’s about to sign with Liverpool!

“I don’t know, but for now, he will focus on the World Cup, and then afterwards, he can think about the rest of his career…”

That line matters. Liverpool have been encouraged by claims that Diomande has already said yes to a move to Anfield, but his international coach is clear: nothing will be decided until Ivory Coast’s campaign is over. The Premier League giants might feel they are in a strong position, yet they will have to wait.

For a club trying to plan for life after Salah, that delay is both a frustration and a reality of shopping at the very top end of the market.

Gakpo as a makeweight?

With Leipzig holding firm on their valuation, Liverpool are exploring ways to soften the financial blow.

One route being discussed by well-placed sources is a swap-style deal involving Cody Gakpo heading the other way. The Dutch forward, versatile and technically gifted, would appeal to a club like Leipzig, who have built their model on developing and flipping high-upside talents.

A part-exchange of that magnitude would be bold. It would also underline just how highly Liverpool rate Diomande – not simply as another winger, but as the man to carry the right flank for the next decade.

Whether Leipzig bite on that kind of proposal is another matter entirely.

Barcola on the radar as Liverpool widen the net

Diomande is not the only winger on Liverpool’s shortlist.

Bradley Barcola, the PSG wide man, has made it clear he wants to leave the French champions, and reporter Graeme Bailey has confirmed he is now a serious big-money target for both Liverpool and Arsenal. The Frenchman offers a different profile but fits the same brief: young, explosive, and capable of growing into a leading role in a forward line undergoing transition.

Liverpool are not gambling everything on one name. They can’t. Not with Salah leaving and the market for elite wide forwards as fierce as it has ever been.

For now, the picture is clear. Diomande is turning heads at the World Cup. Leipzig are driving a hard bargain. Liverpool are pushing, plotting, and weighing up sacrifices to land their man.

The question is simple and brutal: how much are they really prepared to give up to secure the next great Anfield winger?