Liverpool have agreed a fixed fee of £69m (€80m) with Eintracht Frankfurt for Hugo Ekitike, with talks continuing on Sunday over the bonuses in the deal.
Sky Sports News understands the total package in the offer could rise to £78m (€90m), but talks continue over the structure of the add-ons.
Both parties are confident of getting to a full agreement, but there is still work to do to get it finalised.
Liverpool made their move for Ekitike earlier this week after being told Newcastle’s Alexander Isak is not for sale.
Ekitike is open to a Premier League move and Liverpool would be his preferred destination, after Newcastle had an offer rejected.
The 23-year-old was an unused substitute during his side’s pre-season game against FSV Frankfurt on Saturday. After the game, Frankfurt boss, quoted by Sky Germany, said Ekitike’s potential departure is “a bitter loss”.
Ekitike scored 22 goals in 48 games across all competitions last season for Frankfurt as he helped them qualify for the Champions League.
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Sky Sports’ Sam Blitz explains why Liverpool may be getting the ‘next’ Alexander Isak in Hugo Ekitike, with a number of striking similarities between the two strikers
Ekitike ready for the next step after Bundesliga breakthrough
Sky Sports’ Adam Bate:
When Hugo Ekitike was still a teenager at Stade Reims, the coaching staff prepared a development plan for him. They analysed the performances of Kylian Mbappe and then picked out two more players that Ekitike might realistically aspire to replicate.
“These were players with similar profiles from teams that were better than our team, but not at the distance Paris Saint-Germain were from us,” Oscar Garcia, Reims’ then head coach, told Sky Sports. “We challenged him to reach the level of the other two strikers.”
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Take a look at all of Hugo Ekitike’s goals and assists from the 2024/25 season as Liverpool and Newcastle step up interest in signing the striker from Eintracht Frankfurt
On the face of it, that was a perfectly reasonable short-term target. Prior to his final season at Reims, Ekitike had not even scored a goal in France’s top tier. He had spent the second half of the previous campaign on loan at Danish club Vejle Boldklub.
He returned to Reims as the fourth-choice forward but soon forced Oscar to reassess. Soon after that, the two strikers whose level he had been encouraged to hit were no longer in his sights. “Within months, he wanted to reach the same level as Mbappe.”
It is a tale that offers a glimpse into the mindset of the Eintracht Frankfurt forward who has long been linked with a move to the Premier League.
“He always was a talented player but some coaches did not like him because of his profile and sometimes because of his character,” concedes Oscar. “They were thinking he was a little bit arrogant. He always wanted to be compared with the best ones.”
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