Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain have reached an agreement in principle for Bradley Barcola.
Personal terms are understood to be in place, and the deal is expected to be finalised before the transfer window closes.
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The move would end a three-year spell in Paris for the 23-year-old, who joined PSG from Lyon in the summer of 2023.
Barcola has entered the final two years of his contract and had made clear to PSG that he did not intend to extend, opening the door to a sale this summer.
His departure would arrive after a season in which he found opportunities harder to come by.
PSG’s summer additions of Maghnes Akliouche, Ferran Torres and Mika Godts further increased competition in an attack that already includes Ousmane Dembele, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Desire Doue.
For Liverpool, signing Barcola would address a gap on the right flank left by Mohamed Salah’s exit. Although he plays predominantly on the left, he has featured on the right during his time in Paris.
One club with a direct financial interest in the transfer is unlikely to benefit as much as some had assumed.
According to Le Progres, Lyon will not receive a resale percentage from Barcola’s move to Liverpool.
When Lyon sold the winger to PSG in 2023 for €50 million, including bonuses, no sell-on clause was included in the deal. That omission is notable given Lyon’s history of attaching resale percentages to transfers of highly-rated academy products.
Instead, the French club’s only income from a Barcola sale would come through FIFA’s solidarity mechanism. Under this system, 5% of any transfer fee is distributed among the clubs that contributed to a player’s development between the ages of 12 and 23.
Barcola came through Lyon’s academy, meaning the club would be entitled to a share of that 5% based on the specific years he spent there.
The final amount would depend on the transfer fee ultimately agreed between Liverpool and PSG.
Reports earlier in the window floated figures as high as €170 million for Barcola, though the deal in principle is worth closer to £120 million. Either way, the sum returning to Lyon will be a fraction of what a resale clause would have generated.
The situation echoes another case involving a former Lyon player. Bruno Guimaraes, sold to Arsenal for a reported €93 million, was moved without a sell-on clause too, leaving Lyon reliant on the same 5% solidarity mechanism.
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