Genk Director of Football Opens up on Lucca Brughmans Liverpool Transfer

As the summer transfer window entered its final days, Liverpool surprised everyone by agreeing a £30M (€35M) with Genk and signing 18-year-old rising star Belgian goalkeeper Lucca Brughmans on a delayed deal that means he will see out the 2026-27 season as first choice in goal for the club that developed him.

Most might have assumed it was a deal some time in the works, albeit one that perhaps flew under the radar such was the focus on the time on the club trying to get the Bradley Barcola signing across the line and concerns over other positions where the need for a signing or two seemed perhaps more immediately pressing.

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"My first reaction was, oh boy, what now?" said Genk director of football Dimitri de Conde when asked by HLN about getting told Liverpool had submitted an offer with just two days left before the summer transfer window slammed shut. "I knew he was on the radar of top clubs, that he'd even visited Real Madrid.

"He was one of the lads we had hoped to get a handsome fee for at some point to ensure the club's survival. But for it to happen that quickly and for that amount, to be honest I never saw it coming. I got a call from his agency at in the morning on a Sunday, just two days before the English transfer window closed.

"They said, Liverpool are serious and this is their offer. The next morning Lucca was on a plane to Liverpool. I can only take credit for the fact that we, as a club, chose this path—that we could give Lucca his chance. At first it might have only been in the Playoff Two stage, but we did it nonetheless and he took it."

From a Liverpool point of view there are a few interesting strings to pick at, with Real Madrid interest confirmed—the Spanish club had previously been rumoured to see Brughmans as a potential successor to Thibaut Courtois—as well as the fact that it does appear to have been a genuinely unexpected transfer.

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Genk, clearly, were not expecting to sell Brughmans now. The size of Liverpool's opening offer also clearly did surprise them. With two days left in the window and not wanting to give Madrid a chance to potentially join proceedings, though, an overpay and a quickly done deal may have been their only move.

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