Liverpool have agreed terms to sign 17-year-old centre back Ifeanyi Ndukwe from Austria Vienna, according to local reports. Austrian outlet Kurier described the move as a “multi-million euro deal.” Local reports have specified the fee at an initial \u20ac3 million (\u00a32.6 million, $3.5 million).<\/p>\n
The transfer attracted interest from Inter and clubs in Germany, but Fabrizio Romano reported Ndukwe rejected that German interest to reach an agreement with Liverpool. While the paperwork is in place, FIFA rules prevent the 17-year-old from relocating to England until he turns 18. With his birthday in March, Ndukwe will be permitted to join Anfield in the summer.<\/p>\n
Although the move was initially presented as an academy signing, Liverpool believe Ndukwe has the potential to break into the senior squad in the near future. Central defence remains an area of concern for the club. Virgil van Dijk will turn 35 this year and Ibrahima Konat\u00e9 is now in the final six months of his contract.<\/p>\n
Liverpool added Italian teenager Giovanni Leoni last summer, only for him to suffer a serious knee injury on his debut. A planned move for Crystal Palace\u2019s Marc Gu\u00e9hi also collapsed at the 11th hour. The club is pursuing at least one new senior defender regardless of whether Konat\u00e9 signs an extension or departs on a free transfer.<\/p>\n
Among names linked to Liverpool is Club Brugge\u2019s Joel Ord\u00f3\u00f1ez. Some reports suggested a big-money move for Ord\u00f3\u00f1ez had already been wrapped up, but Romano has stated that is not the case. Ord\u00f3\u00f1ez has admirers inside Anfield and has been scouted by the Reds, yet he remains one name on a lengthy shortlist that has yet to be narrowed down.<\/p>\n
The agreement for Ndukwe gives Liverpool a promising defensive prospect to add to their academy ranks and potentially the senior squad once he reaches the age threshold set by FIFA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liverpool have agreed to sign 17-year-old centre back Ifeanyi Ndukwe from Austria Vienna. Confirmed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5661,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,1163],"tags":[1374],"class_list":["post-5662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-transfers","tag-ifeanyi-ndukwe-player"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5662","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=5662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}