Liverpool, Aston Villa, and Newcastle Battling For French Defender In La Liga
With the future of Virgil van Dijk still uncertain as the weeks tick on regarding his contract situation, Liverpool are attempting to be proactive in the market to scout and find his replacement in the event the Dutch captain leaves the club at the end of the season. The Red's sights have turned to French defender, Loïc Badé.
The 24-year-old currently playing for the Spanish outfit, Sevilla, has garnered interest from across the Premier League, with three clubs named by last Saturday's edition of AS for Liverpool and Newcastle, and earlier yesterday, Diario de Sevilla confirmed the interest of Aston Villa.
The 6ft3 Frenchman has impressed a lot of clubs this season, and those in desperate need of a centre-back in the upcoming window will start to speed up their process for signing their targets in this window or for the Summer window.
At the weekend, the Spanish director returned to his former club to watch their 1-1 draw against Valencia and opened talks with Sevilla for Badé. Monchi knows the 24-year-old well, having signed him for the Andalusian club from Stade Rennais in January 2023
The Spanish side would allow Badé to leave this Winter window for an amount of £21million if an offer were to come in.
Aston Villa has laid the most groundwork so far for the Frenchman, with their Sporting Director Monchi travelling to Spain last weekend.
Richard Hughes will need to speed his process up if he wants to get the defender into the squad before he is snapped up by a Premier League rival.