Liverpool in Contact with Fluminense for André After Lavia Bid Rejected

Having seen their second bid for Roméo Lavia rejected by Southampton and having already well exceeded their internal valuation of the player and with the start of the season just two weeks away, Liverpool are pivoting to alternative targets.

According to multiple reports from journalists with ties to the club, at least one serious contender and possibly next in line is Fluminense’s 22-year-old Brazilian international André as the Reds scramble to bring in a six following the departures of Fabinho and Jordan Henderson.

André would make for an exceptionally unexpected signing, with the player at Fluminense since he was 12 and having completed two full seasons now as a first team regular for the Brazilian side.

Liverpool have in the past sourced South American players with little top level European experience—including recent examples such as Darwin Nuñez, Luis Diaz, and Alisson Becker—but they have always tended to at least have some experience in a European league.

In the past, signings made directly from South America have tended to be for the youth team—and they haven’t so far tended to pan out especially well. As such, bringing a 22-year-old in from Brazil to be the club’s new starting holding midfielder would seem like a significant change in approach.

It could also make for a significant risk, but with Southampton unwilling to budge from a £50M valuation for a player with just over 2,000 minutes of senior football and originally targeted to back up Fabinho, one can understand the club exploring alternatives.

After breaking into the first team in 2020 with 11 appearances, André established himself as first choice in the league and made 36 total appearances in 2021 before making an eye-popping 60 appearances in all competitions in 2022.

As for a player few will know much about, André is an almost purely destructive force with minimal on the ball involvement, but what he does well—defensive positioning, tackling, and interceptions—he does as well as any player in Brazil and he can be relied on to keep possession ticking over.