Liverpool prepared to offer about £100m for PSG winger Bradley Barcola
On 5 August 2026 Liverpool have moved to sign Paris St-Germain and France winger Bradley Barcola, with the club understood to be prepared to pay about £100m while PSG are holding out for roughly £145m. If completed, the acquisition would follow two previous Liverpool signings that exceeded the £100m mark.
Liverpool spent record fees this summer and over recent windows: the club could eventually pay Bayer Leverkusen £116m for Florian Wirtz and paid a club-record £125m to sign Alexander Isak from Newcastle in September; they finished fifth in the Premier League last season, 25 points behind champions Arsenal. Barcola, 23, joined PSG from Lyon in 2023 for a reported £38.5m and has been part of PSG’s recent European success, appearing as a second-half substitute in both of the past two Champions League finals when PSG beat Inter Milan 5-0 in 2024-25 and then defeated Arsenal on penalties in May. His honours at club level include three Ligue 1 titles, two French Cups, the Uefa Super Cup and the Fifa Intercontinental Cup, and he was a France squad member at this summer’s World Cup.
Barcola is right-footed but predominantly deployed on the left wing and is capable of playing on the right or through the middle; he played as a striker until the age of 17. In Ligue 1 last season he averaged 3.5 shots per 90 minutes, recorded 9.83 expected goals (xG) — the highest xG total of any PSG player and any Ligue 1 winger in 2025-26 — and converted those chances into 11 league goals. Across Europe’s top five leagues he was the only player to average more than two shot-ending carries per 90 minutes (2.06) and he averaged 8.69 touches in the opposition penalty area per 90 minutes, the seventh-highest figure among more than 1,500 eligible players.
Opta’s player similarity model places Barcola as the winger most similar to Luis Diaz with a 78% match, followed by Mohamed Salah at 65%, Lamine Yamal at 61% and Vinicius Junior at 61%. Compared with Salah last season, Barcola attempted more take-ons per 90 (4.26 to 3.38) but created fewer chances (2.16 to 2.33), attempted far fewer crosses (1.15 to 4.89) and fewer through balls (0.25 to 0.59). Only Ousmane Dembele combined greater shot volume with chance creation in Ligue 1, and Barcola’s shot map emphasises attacking central areas rather than speculative long-range attempts.
Playing time at PSG has been restricted by competition from team-mates Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and 21-year-old Desire Doue, and the article notes a move to Anfield would offer Barcola more minutes. At international level Barcola has 28 caps for France and scored three times at the World Cup, including in the 6-4 third-place play-off defeat to England; France manager Didier Deschamps selected Ousmane Dembele on the right and rotated Barcola and Doue, with both starting four of France’s eight World Cup matches but never in the same game.
The piece also highlights tactical developments during Barcola’s time under Luis Enrique: across three Champions League campaigns at PSG his passing profile has shifted toward progressing play in the final third and he ranked ninth across Europe’s top five leagues for possessions won in the final third last season. The article suggests Liverpool’s recruitment team value his work without the ball, his propensity to make penetrative runs and his tendency to arrive in goalscoring positions alongside other club signings who can occupy central defenders.
Barcola is described as a late physical developer who progressed from Lyon’s academy to become a two-time Champions League winner with PSG by age 23, and the reporting states his combination of pace, movement, shot volume, pressing and growing creative output points to a player still developing. Negotiations over a transfer fee remain the immediate issue: Liverpool are prepared to offer around £100m while PSG are understood to want about £145m.
