Rumour Mongering: Liverpool to Sign Enzo Fernandez for £80M in January

Liverpool’s midfield reload for the summer of 2023 has long been rumoured to revolve around Jude Bellingham, with the Reds currently favoured to sign the 19-year-old English star from Borussia Dortmund at the end of the year.

He won’t be the only midfield signing, though, and the World Cup has brought with it a steady stream of stories linking them with 21-year-old Argentina and Benfica rising star Enzo Fernandez. And, now, those stories are moving well past linking.

In Portugal’s O Jogo, the player is said to favour a Liverpool move—though Benfica are also said not to feel especially pressured to sell given he’s under contract through 2027 and arrived just last summer from River Plate for €10M.

Meanwhile in Argentina, the chatter centres on River’s place in all of this, with the Buenos Aires giants still holding 25% of Fernandez’ rights and so set to receive a major portion of any transfer fee that might be acquired for the World Cup winner.

The highly speculative talk on that front has Liverpool prepared to pay £80M to sign the player—which would mean £60M to Benfica and a further £20M for River Plate—while leaving him at the Portuguese club to finish out the season.

The numbers being thrown around give pause, yet there has been enough to suggest that Fernandez is a legitimate target for Liverpool in recent weeks such that that it’s impossible to entirely rule out a big money buy and loan-back deal.