Why Paris Saint-Germain came down almost £45m on their Bradley Barcola price
Liverpool has reached a verbal agreement with Paris Saint-Germain to sign Bradley Barcola, Fabrizio Romano reported on Thursday, with documents due to be exchanged within 24 hours. David Ornstein of The Athletic put the structure at an initial £100 million plus a further £20 million in add-ons, and noted that nothing has been signed and the deal is not yet complete.
PSG opened the summer asking for €170 million, around £145 million, and held that line for weeks while Liverpool moved in stages. Two verbal offers worth roughly £86 million and £98 million were turned down by the Champions League holders. Romano said earlier in the week that no written bid had gone in yet and that the first one to arrive would likely be the one that finished it. The gap closed once the add-ons went in and Paris accepted a package that starts £45 million below where they began.
Barcola has been pushing for the move for weeks, and his standing in Paris is a large part of why the price moved. He has been behind Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Desire Doue in Luis Enrique’s rotation, and PSG spent this summer adding Maghnes Akliouche, Ferran Torres and Mika Godts to a forward line he was already struggling to get into. Liverpool agreed personal terms with him some time ago and then waited.
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🚨💣 BREAKING: Liverpool reach verbal agreement to sign Bradley Barcola, HERE WE GO! 🔴
Initial fee worth £100m plus add-ons — up to €140m possible total package for PSG.
Documents to be exchanged in 24 hours.#LFC get their top target: never in doubt and now done. pic.twitter.com/ruDJAbIhtK
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 27, 2026
Why Andoni Iraola needed this one to land
Liverpool have been thin in wide areas since Mohamed Salah told the club in March that he was leaving a year early. Victor Munoz arrived from Osasuna and Jeremy Jacquet came in at the back, but the attack was otherwise untouched, and the pursuit of Yan Diomande ended with Real Madrid paying RB Leipzig €140 million for him.
Iraola is still working on Yankuba Minteh as well, with bids of £50 million and £60 million rejected by Brighton, who want £70 million.
The 23-year-old cost PSG €45 million from Lyon in 2023 and played 152 games in three seasons there, scoring 39 goals and setting up 37, a goal involvement every 118.3 minutes. In 2024-25 he produced 21 goals and 19 assists across a campaign that ended with the Champions League and Ligue 1, and he came out of the World Cup with France in form. He plays primarily off the left, the side Liverpool have been trying to fill since Luis Diaz left.
At £120 million all in, the deal would sit just under the £125 million Liverpool paid Newcastle for Alexander Isak last summer, which stood as a British record back then.
Don’t forget the Premier League window shuts at 11 p.m. on Tuesday, Sep 1.
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