Liverpool are reportedly ready to offer 27-year-old midfielder Naby Keita to Inter Milan in a deal to sign Nicolo Barella.
According to Calciomercatoweb, Liverpool are showing serious interest in Italian midfielder Nicolo Barella. Manager Jurgen Klopp is a big fan of the Inter Milan playmaker and has urged the Reds’ board to explore the possibility of signing the UEFA Euro 2020 winner.
Barella formed an integral part of the Inter Milan side that won the Serie A title in the 2020/21 season and remained an important player for them in the recently-concluded campaign as well, which saw him score three goals and provide 13 assists in the league.
The 25-year-old joined Inter Milan permanently in the 2020 summer transfer window after spending a year on loan from Cagliari. He has since made 135 appearances for the club, scoring 11 times and assisting 34 goals. The Nerazzurri, as per the report are unlikely to let Barella, who still has four years left on his contract, leave this summer.
But Klopp wants to sign the Italian midfielder at ‘all costs’, and Inter have named their price – €90 million. With Liverpool recently completing the signing of Darwin Nunez from Benfica for a reported fee of €75 million, they might not want to invest such a huge sum in another player in the same window.
Thus to bring Inter Milan’s asking price down, the Reds have offered Naby Keita to sweeten the deal. The 27-year-old has not quite managed to fulfil the promise he showed during his RB Leipzig days and has had a mixed four-year stint with Liverpool.
The Guinean international has just a year left on his contract with the Merseyside giants, and there have been no fresh reports on a possible renewal. Liverpool could thus use the 27-year-old midfielder in a player-plus-cash deal to land Barella, but the Serie A giants are not willing to accept the proposal.
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The Reds have been quite active before the summer transfer window has even opened, having completed three signings already. Nunez arrived from Benfica, along with attacker Fabio Carvalho from Fulham and right-back Calvin Ramsay from Aberdeen. It will be interesting to see if Liverpool can succeed in the pursuit of Barella or pursue alternatives instead.