Moises Caicedo transfer news: Liverpool agree £111million transfer fee for the Ecuadorian midfielder with Brighton

Aug 11, 2023 07:43 BST

Updated 41 minutes ago

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Brighton rejected an £80m offer for midfielder Moises Caicedo from Premier League rivals Chelsea in July

Liverpool have agreed a British record £111million transfer fee for midfielder Moises Caicedo with Brighton.

However, Chelsea are now trying to secure a contract for the Ecuador international international despite Brighton turning down a number of offers from the club earlier in the summer.

It’s believed the 21-year-old would prefer to move to Stamford Bridge.

It remains to be seen whether the Blues will now accept Liverpool’s offer.

Brighton had set a transfer fee of more than £100m for Caicedo and said they felt no one would match it. Chelsea are believed to have previously bid £80m.

Former Reds captain Henderson, 33, joined Al-Ettifaq in a deal worth £12million plus surcharges, while Brazilian Fabinho, 29, joined Al-Ittihad for £40million.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said on Friday: “I’ve been told I can confirm a deal.” [Brighton] is agreed.

“What has changed is that we’re a club with resources that aren’t endless, so things we didn’t expect, a few things that happened over the summer.” [Henderson and Fabinho]such things.

“We didn’t think about it before the summer and when it happened we tried and obviously the club were really overwhelmed there.”

Klopp said he “don’t know” if Caicedo will arrive on Merseyside for a medical on Friday, adding he wasn’t sure it would be the Reds’ last affair in the transfer window.

The agreed transfer fee for Caicedo exceeds the £107m Chelsea paid for Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez earlier this year. The Seagulls would also benefit if Caicedo were sold by Liverpool due to a resale clause in his contract.

Caicedo joined Brighton in February 2021 from Ecuadorian club Independiente del Valle for £4million, although he didn’t make his Premier League debut until April 2022.

He asked to leave Brighton in the January transfer window earlier in the year. Arsenal subsequently turned down several offers for Caicedo before the player signed a new contract with the Seagulls until 2027 in March.

Klopp has been exploring various options to rebuild his squad after finishing fifth in the Premier League last season and failing to qualify for the Champions League.

However, the price they are willing to pay for Caicedo comes as a surprise as the club announced in April that they would not sign England midfielder Jude Bellingham due to financial concerns.

The 20-year-old later joined Real Madrid in a deal that could total €133.9m (£115m).

Southampton midfielder Romeo Lavia, 19, was also on Klopp’s list of potential transfers but the Reds were rejected by three offers from the Saints, who reportedly value the Belgians at £50m.

While all the furor has centered around Chelsea’s efforts to sign Caicedo, Reds boss Billy Hogan is believed to have been quietly working behind the scenes to pull that deal off the ground.

Brighton had a figure they wanted for Caicedo – someone they believe could become one of the world’s best players – and Hogan’s approach allowed Liverpool to get there.

It could give Klopp one of the Premier League’s most exciting talents – albeit at a price to reflect that.

According to figures from Deloitte, Premier League spending this summer would total more than £1.6bn if Liverpool signed Caicedo for £111m.

That’s still below last year’s record summer spending of £1.9bn – but is already the second-highest amount, ahead of the £1.4bn spent in summer 2017.

The Premier League transfer window closes at 11pm BST on Friday 1 September.

Will Caicedo be Klopp’s Ferrari?

Klopp has previously spoken out about the huge sums of money involved in transfers and the potential impact these could have on the future of football.

In 2016, the German raised the question of spending £100m on a player after Manchester United re-signed French midfielder Paul Pogba for a then-world record £89m.

“From the day it comes to football I don’t have a job because the game is about playing together,” said Klopp.

“Other clubs can spend more money and collect top players. I want to do it differently.”

“I would even do it differently if I could spend the money.”

Asked about these comments during his press conference ahead of Sunday’s game against Chelsea, Klopp said: “Everything has changed. Do I like it? No. Did I realize I was wrong? Yes.”

“I don’t blame anyone but it’s just the market. Ultimately, as a club, we have to make sure we get the best possible player with our resources.”

“We’re not in dreamland and we can’t just point at a player and get them to come in. Sometimes one door closes and another opens.”

“I said what I thought that day and now I realize I was wrong. Admitting that is easy.”

In April, Klopp likened talk of big transfers to “a five-year-old wanting a Ferrari for Christmas”.

“We can’t have six players in one summer, each for £100m,” he said.

“What we need and what we want, we try absolutely everything to get it, but there are moments when you have to accept that this or that is not possible for us – you step aside and do other things.”

With Arsenal spending £105m on England midfielder Declan Rice and Klopp in dire need of reinforcements, Liverpool have joined clubs poised to push past the £100m mark to land a top player.

The most expensive transfers in football
Currency conversions from the time of transfer
	Barcelona to Paris St Germain (2017)
	Monaco to Paris St Germain (2017)
	Liverpool to Barcelona (2018)
	Borussia Dortmund to Barcelona (2017)	£135.5m (originally £96.8m)
	Benfica to Atlético Madrid (2019)
	Benfica to Chelsea (2023)
	Atletico Madrid to Barcelona (2019)
	West Ham to Arsenal (2023)
	Aston Villa to Manchester City (2021)
	Real Madrid to Juventus (2018)
The £111m transfer fee for Caicedo agreed between Liverpool and Brighton isn’t included as the transfer is ongoing