Rumour Mongering: Liverpool Consider Malick Fofana as Chiesa Replacement…
The chatter out of Belgium has the Reds weighing a move for the promising 20-year-old Lyon forward.
Liverpool are in the midst of an exciting summer transfer window, the Premier League title winners flexing their financial muscle in a way they perhaps never have previously, making a string of major signings early and being linked with plenty more as the weeks pass.
Alternately, perhaps, Liverpool are in the midst of a slightly concerning summer transfer window given the squad turnover we could be looking at by the end of it. Still, the names being thrown about are exciting. On paper, these are all moves to make one of Europe’s best squads even better.
The latest on that front comes to us via the Belgian rumour mill, with 20-year-old Lyon winger and Belgium international Malick Fofana is being linked with the Reds as a potential signing for depth and the future pending the sale of Federico Chiesa.
Before Freddy Adu was forgotten, he was expected to be the savior of American soccer. Over the span of Adu’s long career, he set historic milestones, resurrected a dying league, and represented American soccer on the global stage. Yet, his career is viewed as a failure. How does a 14-year-old kid once dubbed as the next Pelé end up being remembered more as a wasted talent who cost himself the opportunity to be America’s greatest soccer player ever? Well, sometimes the lens we’re looking through can be a bit distorted.
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Leading the the rumour mongering is transfer tracker Sacha Tavolieri—a name many will remember from 2023’s Romeo Lavia saga. Since then, Tavoleri has earned a reputation for attaching Liverpool’s name to anybody for that sweet, sweet engagement. He still has a solid rep when it comes to Belgians, though.
Regardless, Fofana is a top talent, and has been most notably linked with Bayern Munich this summer—as a potential option should they fail to sign Liverpool’s Luis Diaz, no less. As such, casting him as a Chiesa replacement is probably going to raise a few eyebrows.
Chiesa played less than 500 minutes for the Reds last season. Fofana played over 2,000 for Lyon. While he isn’t ready to be a nailed on starter for a club like Liverpool, he would most certainly need a larger role than Chiesa had to avoid stalling his development.
Still, if sales of Darwin Nuñez and Luis Diaz also go through in the coming weeks—and if perhaps their replacements are a pair of strikers, with the signing of Hugo Ekitike imminent and the club still targeting Alexander Isak—there might be enough minutes for Fofana as a wing deputy.
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