Liverpool face a difficult replacement task after Mohamed Salah negotiated an early exit and remains contracted only for a matter of weeks. The club is reported to have identified Yan Diomande as the \u201ctop target\u201d as it looks to replicate the attacking profile the team will lose. The memory of the post-Su\u00e1rez era still informs decisions; the club\u2019s earlier choices for that role did not work out and set Liverpool back.<\/p>\n
Diomande\u2019s profile comes with a high price tag. RB Leipzig have long valued the C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire international at \u20ac100 million ($116.4 million, \u00a386.4 million), which is believed to be a release clause. He produced 13 goals and 10 assists across the campaign, a combined total that marginally eclipsed Salah\u2019s output this season. The Ivorian is still developing, aged 19 and tied to Leipzig until 2030, and has a World Cup debut to focus on.<\/p>\n
Leipzig\u2019s stance on release clauses can be flexible. The club\u2019s approach to transfers has previously allowed different structures; Liverpool themselves activated a release clause to sign Dominik Szoboszlai in 2023, while Barcelona structured a staggered deal when they bought Dani Olmo. Leipzig have also used delayed departures before, as when Benjamin \u0160e\u0161ko left in 2025 for Manchester United rather than in 2024.<\/p>\n
Other names on Liverpool\u2019s shortlist present different trade-offs. Anthony Gordon is a more ready option at 25 but would still be costly, reported around $101 million (\u00a375 million). Newcastle appear resigned to his sale after missing European qualification; Eddie Howe justified surprise omission this month because he was \u201clooking at the future.\u201d Jarrod Bowen offers a balanced output with 11 goals and 12 assists, while Maghnes Akliouche is more assist-oriented and was selected by France for the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n
Each candidate brings specific strengths and uncertainties. Diomande leads the group for goal contributions and potential ceiling, but his price, age and Leipzig\u2019s negotiating options mean Liverpool must weigh immediate need against longer-term value.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yan Diomande leads Liverpool’s shortlist to replace Mohamed Salah with 23 goal contributions in 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14071,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,969],"tags":[1162,506,1637],"class_list":["post-14072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-premier-league","tag-analytics","tag-anthony-gordon","tag-assists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}