The Agent of Lazio starlet Keita Balde Diao - a former Barcelona youth player - has confirmed that Brendan Rodgers actively tried to sign the striker over the summer.
Speaking to reporters this week, Balde's agent, Anglo Cascella, told reporters:
"Liverpool and Juventus made a €20m million offer for Keita last summer, but Lazio always rejected their offers".
Liverpool have been linked with Balde several times over the last year:
SEP 2013: The Daily Mail reported that Liverpool's scouts watched the 18-year old in his debut in Lazio's 1-0 win over Legia Warsaw in the Europa League.
FEB 2014: Italian newspaper Tutto Mercato reported that the Reds were still monitoring the player.
MAR 2014: The Mirror claimed that Liverpool scouts continued to check on Balde, and his Agent insisted that the transfer fee 'cannot be less than €15m"
Some facts about Keita:
* Kicked out of Barca at 15 for playing a prank on a tour of Qatar.
* 2010-11: Scored 47 goals in one season for UE Cornellà's youth team.
* Rejected the chance to return to Barcelona.
* Currently contracted to Lazio until June 2017.
* Last season: 8 goals/9 assists in 27 apps for Lazio.
* 5 goals/assists in 8 Europa League games.
Lazio midfielder Gianmarco Falasca is a fan of Keita, and believes he's destined for great things. In December, he told LazioNews:
"Keita is an extraordinary talent. When he works, you can see he is quiet and he is really strong"
Lazio coach Edy Reja is also quietly confident that Keita can develop into a top class player. In a recent interview with Rai Sport, he enthused:
"I knew about Keita’s talent two years ago, he is a player who has continued to grow. If he can maintain the right level of humility and work hard, even defensively, he can do very well.”
It's unclear whether LFC made the offer before or after signing Divock Origi, but in my view, it doesn't make sense to spend €20m on Balde with similarly-aged Belgian striker already in the squad.
Plus, both are similar players, in that they're big, strong, powerful attackers, though Balde can also play on the left-wing.
If Rodgers made an offer, then he's clearly interested, so it's not beyond the realm of possibility that Liverpool may go back in for Balde in the future.
Author: Jaimie K
Speaking to reporters this week, Balde's agent, Anglo Cascella, told reporters:
"Liverpool and Juventus made a €20m million offer for Keita last summer, but Lazio always rejected their offers".
Liverpool have been linked with Balde several times over the last year:
SEP 2013: The Daily Mail reported that Liverpool's scouts watched the 18-year old in his debut in Lazio's 1-0 win over Legia Warsaw in the Europa League.
FEB 2014: Italian newspaper Tutto Mercato reported that the Reds were still monitoring the player.
MAR 2014: The Mirror claimed that Liverpool scouts continued to check on Balde, and his Agent insisted that the transfer fee 'cannot be less than €15m"
Some facts about Keita:
* Kicked out of Barca at 15 for playing a prank on a tour of Qatar.
* 2010-11: Scored 47 goals in one season for UE Cornellà's youth team.
* Rejected the chance to return to Barcelona.
* Currently contracted to Lazio until June 2017.
* Last season: 8 goals/9 assists in 27 apps for Lazio.
* 5 goals/assists in 8 Europa League games.
Lazio midfielder Gianmarco Falasca is a fan of Keita, and believes he's destined for great things. In December, he told LazioNews:
"Keita is an extraordinary talent. When he works, you can see he is quiet and he is really strong"
Lazio coach Edy Reja is also quietly confident that Keita can develop into a top class player. In a recent interview with Rai Sport, he enthused:
"I knew about Keita’s talent two years ago, he is a player who has continued to grow. If he can maintain the right level of humility and work hard, even defensively, he can do very well.”
It's unclear whether LFC made the offer before or after signing Divock Origi, but in my view, it doesn't make sense to spend €20m on Balde with similarly-aged Belgian striker already in the squad.
Plus, both are similar players, in that they're big, strong, powerful attackers, though Balde can also play on the left-wing.
If Rodgers made an offer, then he's clearly interested, so it's not beyond the realm of possibility that Liverpool may go back in for Balde in the future.
Author: Jaimie K
If anyone is wondering about the veracity of these rumours, I believe Tony Barrett tweeted (or mentioned in an article) the failed bid and he is rarely wide of the mark in such matters.
ReplyDeleteAs for the timing (JK wonders in the article whether it was before or after Origi) it is my understanding (and my memory!) that it was after the Origi deal was done.
Yeah, I hope we get him then we would/could use him for rotation in the future with many competitions.
ReplyDeleteAgree
ReplyDeleteWard
ReplyDeleteFlanagan_Jones_Ilori_Moreno
Rossiter
Dunn_Branagan
Sterling
Origi_De Kieta
Could be future LFC first team
Maybe but I see it like this...
ReplyDeleteNew Keeper
Flanagan/Manquillo_Wisdom_Jones_Moreno
Emre Can_Rossiter
Markovic_Sterling_Teixara
Origi
In my view, both those teams will never win anything.
ReplyDeleteSent from Samsung Mobile
No one could ever field a complete youth team and expect it to win stuff. Not in a competitive league, in the modern era.
ReplyDeleteI disagree championship winning material written all over it.
ReplyDeletethat high more like the north counties
ReplyDeleteAfter that game, I've regathered myself and concluded that we don't need to panic. It was one of those days when BR got it all wrong, and we had too many players on the field new to eachother. As a result, you weren't able to see our trademark dynamism which comes out in quick passing plays of movement.
ReplyDeleteOn the whole, I actually don't think that were that bad at all defensively. Apart from that scrappy corner, it was a pretty sound defensive performance, it was just our attack that unusually let us down. We know what we're capable of, and we know that we can consistently pull it off week after week. But unfortunately, the game was exactly like against Soton last season- wrong tactics from BR and and little creativity going forward.
tbh i dont know why he left out Sterling. yeah we still should beat Villa at home but that doesnt mean Mourinho will leave out Hazard or Costa just because they played in a international. even Man City messed up on that front. Leaving out Yaya Toure against Arsenal cost them dearly. if he were there, they would have surely beat Arsenal. but instead Wilshere and Sanchez battered them in the middle of the park and they managed to draw and almsot win. my team yesterday would have been
ReplyDelete------------------------------Mingolet
Manquillo----------Skrtel--------Lovren-------Moreno
----------------------Lucas--------Gerrard
-----Henderson--------Sterling----------Coutinho
----------------------------Balotelli
BR needs to learn that he cant always go all out for the win, and he hasnt learnt his lesson from last season. he knows A.Villa have the players tactically to shut out our play and he never changed it. if we played like this, without Gerrard holding, even if they tried to target Stevie again and caught him out we will have Lucas there to cover. Coutinho was poor yesterday but tbh he looked like the only player who was ever going to score. Borini is just terrible, zero impact and should have just left. Balotelli was poor but the players around him were also poor so cant blame him too much. overall it was a really lacklustre performance, but im sure if we went with my formation we would have won. if we brought on Markovic, Lallana and Lambert for Sterling, Coutinho and Balotelli that would have made much more sense.
and make no mistake our best player yesterday was Javier Manquillo. solid performance from him. every1 else was in la la land, Moreno played well other than the chance he tried to pass to Markovic when he should have shot and scored and made it 2 goals in 2. at the end of the day BR was very silly not to sign Loic Remy, very odd and strange to buy Markovic and Lambert.
instead of Lazar Markovic i would have bought Lorenzo Insigne who is much more proven for £25M. Benitez would sell and he would be a Anfield genius. if we couldnt get him, alternative could be Stefan El-Shaarawy who is a world class young talent and also much more proven than Markovic despite all being similar ages.
and instead of Lambert who for a strange reason was our 1st summer signing when we should have instead made Remy our 1st signing, we should have bought Remy. Remy proved in the last 2 games for France and Chelsea how much we missed in him. hes a proven CF without a word of a doubt and has done it at many levels. he came on twice and scored. out of the team that was out there only Gerrard, Hendo and Coutinho had scored competitive goals at Anfield in a LFC shirt. how can we expect that team to go out there and win the game? seriously
One thing is for sure after yesterday that we are not a title contenders. Last season was probably our best chance. (I do think that had we won it, people would have remembered it as fluke and a season where other top team were weak and in transition.)
ReplyDelete.
We added quantity this season but not sure about quality. I hope we are not going to become Arsenal, fighting for silverware and fourth place only.