Liverpool's Last Effort for Yan Diomande Amid PSG Interest

Liverpool have thrown one last punch in the Yan Diomande saga. It looks like they’re going to miss.

The Premier League club have made a late attempt to hijack the 19-year-old winger’s move to PSG, pushing hard after seeing a €100m bid rejected by RB Leipzig earlier in the window. Diomande has been Liverpool’s headline target for the right flank since Mohamed Salah’s departure ripped a hole in their forward line. The Ivorian can play across the front, but it’s that right side where Liverpool see him as the heir.

Leipzig knocked back Liverpool’s offer, which totalled €100m whether structured as €90m plus €10m in add-ons or €80m plus €20m. The numbers changed in the reports; the outcome did not. Leipzig said no, and Diomande made it clear he wanted PSG.

At that point, Liverpool’s pursuit looked finished. The club’s owners, FSG, began to pivot towards Bradley Barcola, the PSG winger whose future in Paris would be under direct threat if Diomande walks through the door at the Parc des Princes.

But Liverpool have not walked away quietly. According to TEAMtalk’s Graeme Bailey, all of Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City have made late approaches for Diomande. Only one of them has already put huge money on the table and built their summer strategy around him. That’s Liverpool.

The problem for them is simple: Diomande’s mind is set. He wants PSG.

Any suggestion that PSG might cool their interest has been dismissed. Bailey reports that PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi has personally stepped in to drive negotiations with Leipzig, a move that has shifted the talks decisively. Al-Khelaifi’s relationship with Red Bull’s hierarchy has helped grease the wheels, and Leipzig are now described as internally resigned to losing their star winger.

The pressure from Paris is starting to tell. PSG are understood to be ready to pay around €110m (£93.5m) to close the deal, a figure that would edge past Liverpool’s rejected bid and underline just how determined the French champions are to land Diomande.

Inside Leipzig, there is an acceptance that the player is closing in on a move to the French capital. Outside, Liverpool are left watching a transfer they once led slip away in slow motion.

For Andoni Iraola and the Liverpool hierarchy, the response is already mapped out. With Diomande drifting out of reach, attention swings back to Barcola. The France international has stalled over a new and improved contract at PSG, and the club are open to a sale at the right price.

If Diomande walks into Paris as the new headline act, Barcola could be the one walking out. And Liverpool, having lost their fight for the “true prize,” may yet try to turn PSG’s big win in the market into an opportunity of their own.