Liverpool agree British record £111m fee for Caicedo
BBC – Liverpool have agreed a British record transfer fee of £111m with Brighton for midfielder Moises Caicedo.
After Brighton rejected a succession of bids from Chelsea, it remains to be seen whether the Blues will now match that amount.
Brighton had set a fee in excess of £100m for Caicedo and had said they felt no-one would reach it.
However, Liverpool have now done that, which leaves the 21-year-old Ecuador international free to go for a medical.
Liverpool lost midfielders Jordan Henderson and Fabinho to the Saudi Pro League last month but signed Caicedo’s Brighton team-mate Alexis Mac Allister in June for £35m.
Former Reds captain Henderson, 33, joined Al-Ettifaq in a deal worth £12m plus add-ons, while 29-year-old Brazilian Fabinho switched to Al-Ittihad for £40m.
Speaking on Friday, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said: “I got told I can confirm a deal with [Brighton] is agreed.
“What did change is that we are a club with not endless resources, so things we didn’t expect, a couple of things happening in the summer [Henderson and Fabinho], stuff like this.
“We didn’t think about that before the summer, to be honest and when it happened, we gave it a go and obviously, the club was really stretched there, to be honest.”
The fee agreed for Caicedo exceeds the £107m Chelsea paid for Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez earlier this year. The Seagulls would also profit if Caicedo is sold by Liverpool because of a sell-on clause in his contract.
Caicedo joined Brighton from Ecuadorian side Independiente del Valle for £4m in February 2021 although he did not make his Premier League debut until April 2022.
He asked to leave Brighton in the January transfer window earlier this year. Arsenal then had multiple offers turned down for Caicedo before the player signed a new contract with the Seagulls until 2027 in March.
Klopp has been looking at various options to rebuild his squad after they finished fifth in the Premier League last season and failed to qualify for the Champions League.