Liverpool may need a forward in the summer. Jürgen Klopp could look to a player being compared to Kylian Mbappé who has already outshone Neymar and Lionel Messi.
While Liverpool continues to be linked with various well-known and expensive players ahead of the summer transfer window, they often tend to move for stars who are slightly more off-the-radar — with Luis Díaz being a prime example.
Come the summer, more players like the Colombian will likely be found, with some work to be done to reshape the squad with some outgoings expected and others possible depending on new contract situations before then.
Jürgen Klopp’s plans will largely be dictated by who remains at the club and who departs, but should the Reds need an attacking player, then someone in France might be worth a look.
“If you’ve not seen Kamaldeen Sulemana, then just think about Kylian Mbappé,” African football writer Gary Al-Smith told the BBC this week.
“He is not as refined as Kylian Mbappé now, but let’s take it to step by step. What do we like about Kylian Mbappé? His electric pace. Check, Kamaldeen has that.
“His unpredictable turn of pace or turn of expression. That is what Kamaldeen has as well. Kamaldeen probably has a few more tricks than Kylian, and he needs to hone that in terms of the way he turns players inside out.
“He is raw and that is why Rennes was one of the better places for him to go.”
Having just turned 20 and having only signed for Rennes last summer, the Ghanaian international, valued at £18m by Transfermarkt, still need to work on the overall roundedness of his game, but his strength is clear: he ranks in the 99th percentile for dribbles completed across Europe’s top five leagues and the 88th percentile for progressive carries.
FBref makes his most stylistically similar player former Barcelona and Chelsea forward Pedro, while Federico Chiesa, linked with a £70m move to Liverpool last summer, is second on the list.
In October, he stole the show against PSG in a 2-0 victory, shining ahead of Neymar and Lionel Messi; by November, he was ranked above Neymar as Ligue 1’s best dribbler in his debut campaign in France.
There is still a lot of work that needs to be done with his game before comparisons to Mbappé can even be remotely plausible, but if Liverpool wants him, it is probably going to have to be now.
Before long, he will follow a long line of other players — Raphinha for example, who was at Rennes less than two years ago, left for £17m, and is now said to be valued at £60m-plus — in moving out of Liverpool’s price range.
With Divock Origi moving on in the summer and Takumi Minamino perhaps set to follow, the Reds could do worse than make their replacement a player very much for the future who could also make an important impact now.
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