Liverpool have had 'direct contact' with Ayyoub Bouaddi

Fabrizio Romano has claimed that there’s been ‘direct contact’ between Liverpool and one of the stars of the first few days at the 2026 World Cup.

Teenage midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi was a standout performer for Morocco as they opened with a 1-1 draw against Brazil in which they were the better team for long periods, with the Lille youngster rightly coming in for glowing praise on social media for his performance.

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The Reds were reported to have been among the clubs tracking the 18-year-old in the early months of the 2025/26 season, with the Ligue 1 side said to have valued him in the £35m-£40m bracket at the time.

Romano reveals ‘direct contacts’ between Liverpool and Bouaddi

In an overnight update on his eponymous YouTube channel, Romano namechecked Liverpool, Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain as three clubs to have actively registered their interest in the teenager.

The Italian transfer guru said: “Lille are aware of what’s going to happen. Lille know very well that top clubs will come in for Bouaddi. Even before the World Cup, some of the biggest clubs in the world started some conversations with Lille.

“I can tell you that, between January and now, for sure he’s been approached by Paris Saint-Germain. At the moment they are not so busy with midfielders on the market, but PSG absolutely love Bouaddi and have been tracking him for a long time.

“We also have to mention that English clubs started having conversations for Bouaddi. For example, there were direct contacts with Arsenal and also with Liverpool.”

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Liverpool may need to move quickly for Bouaddi

Romano has echoed the thoughts of many a football fan this morning by describing Bouaddi as a ‘super talented midfielder’ who gave a ‘fantastic’ performance in Morocco’s draw against Brazil on Saturday, with his statistics from the game (via Sofascore) backing up the eye test.

Accurate passes 60/66 (91%) Duels won 9/15 Tackles won 4 Dribbles completed 3/5 Free kicks won 2

Of course it’d be unwise to have a transfer decision informed by one match, but the 18-year-old distinguished himself in Ligue 1 with his ball-winning and dribbling attributes throughout the past 12 months, as reflected by information from Fotmob.

2025/26 Ligue 1 Per 90 minutes Percentile among positional peers Successful dribbles 1.131 86th (top 14%) Dribble success 60.7% 73rd Duels won 5.49 72nd Duel success 56.6% 83rd Aerial duel success 64.1% 88th Recoveries 5.84 81st

In addition, Scouted Football have highlighted his ‘unflappable maturity’ in the middle of the park, standing out with his physicality, intensity and progressive ball carrying (via X).

Liverpool will be well aware of those qualities from their extensive scouting of Bouaddi, whose age profile aligns with the Reds’ transfer strategy over the psat year, with FSG bringing in several talents aged 20 and under as they look towards the long-term future.

The danger for the Merseysiders is that the Moroccan continues to star at the World Cup and either sees his asking price soar, or a rival suitor act decisively in anticipation of growing interest in the midfield starlet.

If LFC are determined to bring him in, they’d be wise to move quickly.

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