Liverpool are preparing to make Bradley Barcola their third signing above £100m, with the Reds prepared to pay around that fee for the Paris St-Germain and France winger. Paris St-Germain, however, are holding out for somewhere near £145m for the 23-year-old.
Liverpool have already paid more than £100m twice before, for midfielder Florian Wirtz and striker Alexander Isak. They could eventually end up paying Bayer Leverkusen £116m for Wirtz, while they paid a club record £125m to sign Isak from Newcastle. Liverpool finished fifth in the Premier League last season, 25 points behind champions Arsenal.
Barcola’s PSG record and World Cup involvement
Barcola moved to PSG from Lyon in 2023 for a reported £38.5m. He has since won three Ligue 1 titles, the French Cup twice, the Uefa Super Cup and the Fifa Intercontinental Cup. He came on as a second-half substitute in both of the past two Champions League finals, when PSG beat Inter Milan 5-0 in 2024-25 and edged past Arsenal on penalties in May to retain their title.
He is right footed but prefers to play on the left wing, and can also play on the right or through the middle. With PSG also having Georgia’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and France’s Desire Doue as wide options, Barcola does not play 90 minutes every match, so a move to Anfield would give him more playing time.
Barcola has played 28 times for France and scored three goals at this summer’s World Cup, including in the 6-4 loss to England in the third-place play-off. His game time was limited by the form of team-mate Doue. Boss Didier Deschamps kept Ballon d’Or holder Ousmane Dembele on the right and rotated Barcola and Doue, with both starting four of France’s eight World Cup matches, but never in the same game.
Why Liverpool need attacking reinforcements
Mohamed Salah left Liverpool on a free transfer at the end of last season having scored 257 goals in a nine-year spell with the club. France forward Hugo Ekitike ruptured his Achilles tendon in April and is not expected to play again in 2026. Cody Gakpo, who can also play on the left and in the middle, has been linked with a move to Tottenham, although Liverpool say they do not want to sell him.
The Reds’ other current attacking options include 17-year-old Rio Ngumoha, Italy forward Federico Chiesa and new signing Victor Munoz.
Opta’s player similarity model rates Barcola as the winger whose output most closely resembled that of Luis Diaz across Europe’s top five leagues in 2025-26, at 78%, with Mohamed Salah, Lamine Yamal and Vinicius Junior the next closest matches at 61-65%. Liverpool chose not to sign a direct replacement for Diaz after his departure last summer.
Barcola played as a striker until the age of 17, and last season averaged 3.5 shots per 90 minutes in Ligue 1. His 9.83 expected goals ranked in the 95th percentile among wingers across the top five leagues, and he converted those chances into 11 league goals. He was the only player across the top five leagues to average more than two shot-ending carries per 90 minutes, at 2.06, and ranked ninth for possessions won in the final third last season.
Compared with Salah, Barcola attempted more take-ons per 90 last season, 4.26 to 3.38, but created fewer chances, 2.16 to 2.33, and attempted far fewer crosses and through balls.
