Liverpool's move for Naby Keita off after club are told €75m is 'not enough' to buy RB Leipzig midfielder
The Reds launched a third and final bid for the 22-year-old last week
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Your support makes all the difference.Liverpool have been told that €75m is not enough to buy “world class” Naby Keita this summer in what looks to be the final nail in the coffin in their hopes of signing the RB Leipzig midfielder.
The Reds have had two bids rejected for Keita already this summer and were preparing a third and final bid which included £40m to be paid up front, The Independent revealed last week.
The Germans have held their ground on selling their best players all summer and feel it has almost become a matter of principle to keep Keita, with the billionaire owner of Red Bull Dietrich Mateschitz even weighing into the matter, claiming money isn’t a temptation for the club.
And now is the turn of Leipzig’s managing director Oliver Mintzlaff to deny that Keita will leave leaving Liverpool needing to look for other options to fill that central midfield role.
“€75m (£66.9m) is not enough to buy Keita. He is World Class, he stays,” Mitzlaff told Bild.
“RB Leipzig is looking forward to the next season together with Naby Keita.”
That means the Reds have to wait until next summer to sign the 22-year-old, when his £48m release clause becomes active, although at that price they will have a plethora of other clubs to compete with.
Liverpool had hoped an offer, with more than a 50 per cent mark-up on what they will almost certainly lose Keita for next summer, would be enough to make Leipzig sell, but these latest comments suggest the deal is finally dead.
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