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After a week of negotiating with Emre Can's representatives, German newspaper Bild believes Liverpool have made a breakthrough in their efforts to sign Turkish-German midfielder Emre Can from Bayer Leverkusen. Having signalled their desire to sign the 20-year-old shortly after the end of the season, negotiations had seemed to stall last week over personal terms.
If reports out of Germany are correct, any contract issues between Can and Liverpool have been worked through and a deal is imminent with Liverpool set to trigger the player's €12M release clause a year after Can moved from Bayern Munich for a fee of €5.5M. Though Leverkusen will be disappointed to lose him, it's a tidy profit for a player they never expected to hold on to long term.
If any club is to be upset about the deal it is likely Bayern, who inserted a buy-back clause into his deal that would have allowed them to recall the player after a minimum of two seasons at Leverkusen. Bayern could always trigger his release clause this summer as Liverpool have already done, but they would then have to compete for the player's signature.
Were Can slightly older and at the stage in his career when Bayern might have considered bringing him back they would likely be favoured to win such a competition for his signature. Having just sent him out last summer to continue his development and with little room for him in the current squad, Liverpool would seem to have the edge.
In the end, though, it appears unlikely to matter, as Bayern have as yet shown no signs of trying to bring Can back, clearing the way for Liverpool to complete the signing—perhaps even before the end of the week.
