Liverpool Prepared to Extend Dejan Lovren Contract Until 2022

Widespread reports today that Liverpool have plans to trigger a club-option to extend Dejan Lovren’s contract through the summer of 2022 took fans by surprise given the 31-year-old defender has been consistently linked with a move away.

With recent rumours of Zenit St. Petersburg interest and past links to numerous Serie A clubs, the last thing many will have expected would be a contract extension—but making the option public will be mostly about maximising his sale price.

With a year left on his deal should the club not trigger that extension, Lovren would be able to leave the club on a free next summer. That would be expected to drive down price the Reds could get for the veteran Croatian centre half.

Making public the fact that a club option to extend Lovren’s contract through 2022, then, simply makes it clear to any potential buying club that the Reds aren’t faced with a choice of selling Lovren on the cheap or losing him for nothing.

With the player eager for a move away for playing time and the club content to shed the £100k weekly wages currently tied up in their fourth-choice centre half, it remains highly likely that he will move on in the coming months.