The 21-year-old Hungary and Bournemouth left back has agreed personal terms as Liverpool work to agree a fee and structure with his current club.
Liverpool have signed Jeremie Frimpong from Bayer Leverkusen in a £30M deal to replace the departed Trent Alexander-Arnold at right back and are hard at work to bring in attacker Flroian Wirtz in a blockbuster deal, but he might not be their next transfer deal.
That’s because the Reds and sporting director Richard Hughes are also working to shore up the left back position for manager Arne Slot as he prepares for a title defence in 2025-26, and Hughes has zeroed in on Bournemouth’s 21-year-old Hungarian international Milos Kerkez.
Kerkez has made no secret of his desire to join the Reds, and it is believed Liverpool have been given permission to speak to the player and that a five-year contract has been agreed ahead of an expected transfer. That just leaves the small matter of agreeing to one.
On that front, multiple reports late today have the two sides moving towards a deal that would be expected to at least come close to Bournemouth’s £45M valuation for Kerkez, who still has three years on his contract putting The Cherries in a strong negotiating position.
This is a slight shift from earlier reports that presented a deal as close—if perhaps not quite as close as this latest round of chatter presents it as—at proposed a £40M fee, suggesting Bournemouth has stuck to their guns on price and Liverpool may have accepted that.
It’s a hefty fee, but Kerkez—who it should be noted Hughes brought to Bournemouth in the first place when he was that club’s sporting director—is a tireless and talented runner on the left, and it’s become clear over the past few months that he is very much the Reds’ first choice.