Liverpool's Succession Plan for Mohamed Salah: Yan Diomande in Focus
Liverpool’s Salah succession plan has taken a sharper focus – and a more complicated shape – around a 19-year-old tormentor of defenders and a transfer fee that starts in the stratosphere.
Liverpool’s new obsession
Mohamed Salah will walk away from Anfield at the end of the season after nine years of goals, trophies and inevitability on that right flank. Replacing him is not a normal recruitment job; it’s a generational handover.
Inside Liverpool, Richard Hughes has fixed on Yan Diomande as the man to grow into that role. The RB Leipzig winger has been tracked for months, with initial contact dating back to December, and the belief at Anfield is that his profile – explosive, fearless, technically sharp – fits the post-Salah blueprint.
Leipzig know exactly what they have. They are in no rush to cash in, convinced another year in the Bundesliga and on the European stage will only inflate his value. Any conversation, they have made clear, starts at around €100m (£87m, $116m) and could climb towards €120m (£104m, $140m).
That is the kind of number that forces creativity, even for a club of Liverpool’s scale.
World Cup spotlight, transfer pause
Diomande’s price tag is not shrinking after his latest outing. On Sunday, he lit up Ivory Coast’s 1-0 World Cup win over Ecuador, repeatedly isolating and unsettling Arsenal defender Piero Hincapie. Four completed dribbles only tell part of the story; he carried the ball with a swagger that suggested this is only the beginning.
On the touchline, Ivory Coast coach Emerse Fae watched the same thing Liverpool’s scouts have seen – a teenager playing with the composure and menace of someone far older.
“Yan – what can I say? I can’t put it into words,” Fae said after the Group E victory. “He’s very talented, but beyond the talent, he’s very young, and he’ll improve.
“He’s a kid who works hard, has a real team spirit, laughs with everyone, and he listens, listens to the technical staff whenever he’s given advice, and tries to do his best, as he’s told.
“It’s easy to work with someone like Yan, he’s so talented and has what is needed, plus he can give you the victory and was a real challenge for Hincapié, a Champions League finalist.”
The performance only fuelled the noise around him. Fae, though, made it clear that Diomande’s future will not be decided while the World Cup is still running.
“When we were in France, during the preparation, journalists told me he was about to sign with PSG,” Fae said. “Here, they tell me he’s about to sign with Liverpool!
“I don’t know, but for now, he will focus on the World Cup, and then afterwards, he can think about the rest of his career…”
So Liverpool wait. Encouraged, but waiting.
A swap on the table?
Those eye-watering figures have forced Liverpool to examine every possible lever. One option under discussion, according to sources, is a swap that would see Cody Gakpo move to RB Leipzig as part of a package for Diomande.
It would be a bold move. Gakpo remains a valued attacker, but he is also one of the few assets who could significantly reduce the cash element of such a deal. Leipzig, with their track record of developing forwards and flipping them at a profit, represent a natural landing spot.
For Liverpool, the calculation is brutal but simple: if Diomande is truly the long-term heir to Salah, almost nothing is off the table.
The winger, for his part, is understood to be keen. At just 19, the chance to step into Anfield, into the Premier League, into the vacancy Salah will leave behind, is said to appeal strongly. The sense from those close to the situation is that he has already given a green light to the idea of joining Liverpool, even if the timing and the numbers remain in flux.
Not just one winger on the radar
Liverpool’s recruitment team is not betting everything on a single card. While Diomande sits at the top of the wishlist, he is not the only elite wide player in their sights.
Bradley Barcola, unsettled at PSG and eager to move on, has emerged as another major target. As reported by Graeme Bailey, the Frenchman wants out, and both Liverpool and Arsenal are circling a potential deal that would carry its own hefty price tag.
Two young, high-ceiling wingers. One vacancy of enormous symbolic weight.
For Liverpool, this summer is not just about finding goals and assists. It is about choosing the next wide forward who will define the club’s attacking identity for the next decade. And with Diomande dazzling on the World Cup stage while Leipzig dig in over the fee, the question now is not whether Liverpool will move for a star winger – it is which one they are prepared to reshape their squad, and their balance sheet, to secure.
