At the moment, Manchester United are said to be the only club who have made their interest official—but that could change if the Reds make sales.
Liverpool have moved quickly this summer to strengthen Arne Slot’s squad in preparation for a title defence in 2025-26, already signing right back Jeremie Frimpong and with deals for superstar attacker Florian Wirtz and left back Milos Kerkez in their final stages.
There has also been persistent chatter regarding potential striker targets, though the club’s plans on that front remain less certain than at other positions. Still, uncertain has never stopped the rumour mongers, and one of the most commonly linked names of late has been Frankfurt’s Hugo Ekitike.
The latest rumblings out of Germany via Bild, though, claim Manchester United are so far the only side who have spoken to Frankfurt about the 22-year-old French striker coming off a breakout season where he scored 15 league goals while significantly under-performing his underlying numbers.
Liverpool fans might be leery of the latter and inclined to let United roll the dice given current striker Darwin Nuñez is notorious for under-performing those same numbers, but the conventional wisdom says even if Nuñez is a finishing outlier in the wrong direction, for most it tends to even out over time.
Regardless, Ekitike isn’t the finished product. He’s a young player coming off a breakout season who has a limited data-set to work with from a recruitment point of view. He’s one of Europe’s top striker prospects, but there are question marks—and Frankfurt have valued him at an eye-watering €100M.
None of which necessarily goes against previous rumours, though, given it always seemed clear that if Liverpool actually were interested in Ekitike it would be a deal that would only go ahead after Darwin Nuñez’ future became clear, and that remains up in the air.
Not having formally talked to Frankfurt about Ekitike doesn’t mean no interest—and Bild note both Liverpool and Chelsea have been in contact with the player’s camp even if it’s United who are the most serious suitors at the moment. And the price would need to come down from Frankfurt’s valuation.
If you’re the player, though, the thought of joining defending champions Liverpool would have to be far more appealing than joining a United side that finished 15th and isn’t in Europe next season, so if a Nuñez sale were to happen shortly anything is possible.