Both Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané are irreplaceable footballers for Jürgen Klopp. If the more than possible best version of the ‘Pharaoh’ since he arrived in Liverpool are added the 33 goals accumulated by the Egyptian and Senegalese forwards so far this year, It seems complicated that, no matter how good performance Diogo Jota is offering –12 goals and 1 assist– or the many options available to the German coach on the bench, the Reds don’t be too quick to track the transfer market now that the Africa Cup is just around the corner.
The ’11’ and ’10’ of the English team have headed to Cameroon to play during the month of January the African Cup of Nations with their respective national teams, which has meant that while Liverpool already had a number of players on the radar to reinforce the lead in the next transfer windows, it may accelerate the purchase of one of the greatest young talents in European and South American football.
Luis Díaz has been dreaming of several markets to leave Porto, but this could be the final one. According to the British newspaper ‘The Sun‘, “Liverpool is close to closing a deal estimated at 60M pounds (around 72M euros)” for the Colombian striker of the Dragons. It has been several months since England have placed the 24-year-old attacker in the orbit of the Red team on numerous occasions, but in this case it would have been the loss of two such important figures of the team during the next month of competition what would have led the Anfield team to dust off the wallet.
In The Sun they point out that “Klopp would rather wait until the summer, but the absence of his best attackers – as well as various injury problems – makes him tempted to ‘splurge’ money on this window.”. Although, as pointed out by this media, Luis Díaz’s clause reaches 80M euros, in Liverpool they hope to reach an agreement with the Portuguese team to lower the price of the Colombian. The still Porto player still has two years left on his contract with the Portuguese team.
The new Colombian star
The ‘boom’ of Luis Díaz during the last year is what has finished arousing the interest of the big European clubs. It was precisely during the group stage of the Champions League, in which Liverpool faced the Dragons, when the German coach was impressed with the Colombian player. Luis Díaz, who scored 14 and 11 goals respectively in his first two seasons with Porto, has already added 15 goals in 24 games this season, in addition to 4 assists.
The 24-year-old forward was also one of the great surprises of the last Copa América, scoring 4 goals in 5 games (top scorer, tied with Leo Messi and Gianluca Lapadula), reaching the semifinals with Colombia and finishing third in the tournament by beating Peru in the match for third and fourth place. Likewise, the conditions of the future Colombian star, such as speed and power, would fit perfectly with Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool style of play.