Liverpool Reportedly Face Competition for Mahmoud Dahoud from Borussia Dortmund

Late last week, reports emerged suggesting that Liverpool could make a £26M January move for Borussia Monchengladbach’s rising star 20-year-old Mahmoud Dahoud. However, it was a rumour that left some fans scratching their heads.

After all, Dahoud has a fairly widely reported release clause that kicks in next summer and that would allow Liverpool to steal him away from Gladbach for around £8.5M. And if they could have him on the cheap in the summer, why would they pay three times as much in January?

The answer to that could be found in reports from Germany’s Bild that Borussia Dortmund want to beat Liverpool to Dahoud—and that they will offer €15M plus former Liverpool loanee Nuri Sahin in order to get the deal done in January.

If true, it makes sense of the reports of Liverpool lining up a quite hefty January bid, though even then, the offer of Sahin in return could make Dortmund’s offer difficult for Gladbach to turn down seeing as it would hand them a ready-made replacement.

Still, past reports have suggested Dahoud would like to work under Klopp in England, and if two offers are on the table—and especially if Liverpool are challenging for the title and in line to return to the Champions League—Liverpool would likely have the edge with the player.

Juventus have also been heavily linked to Dahoud in the past, though reports in Italy suggest they have accepted that they don’t have a realistic shot at landing the player with Klopp’s current and former clubs interested in him.