Liverpool secured a huge coup on transfer deadline day as a highly rated wonderkid picked them over Real Madrid
Lucca Brughmans looks on
Lucca Brughmans joined in the summer transfer window (Image: Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
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Liverpool reportedly beat off competition from Real Madrid for goalkeeper Lucca Brughmans. The Reds moved quickly on transfer deadline day, with the 18-year-old undergoing a medical in Belgium before completing his switch on September 1.
The £30m agreement makes Brughmans, who will remain with Genk for the rest of the season, the most expensive teenage goalkeeper in football history. The highly-rated keeper hopes to become Alisson Becker’s long-term successor at Anfield.
Genk always hoped to pocket a sizable fee for the Belgian. But by their own admission, they were not expecting a deal for Brughmans to be agreed so early in his career - and for him to be the subject of such a hefty transfer fee.
The teenager has only made 17 senior appearances for the club to date, having only established himself as Genk’s number one goalkeeper at the back end of last season.
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And The Daily Mail now claim that Brughmans had been taken to Real and was expected to follow in the footsteps of his idol Thibaut Courtois.
However, the Reds moved quickly and made their offer to Genk on Sunday morning before transfer deadline day. By Monday morning, he was on a jet to Merseyside.
Lucca Brughmans was back in action for Genk after signing for Liverpool
Lucca Brughmans was back in action for Genk after signing for Liverpool(Image: BRUNO FAHY / BELGA MAG / Belga / AFP via Getty Images)
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Genk’s sporting director, Dimitri de Conde, has admitted he was caught off guard by Liverpool’s move for the shot-stopper.
“My first reaction was: ‘Oh boy, what now?’,” he told Het Laatste Nieuws, as quoted by Sport Witnesswhen asked for his reaction to Liverpool’s offer. “I knew he was on the radar of top clubs.
“That he’d even visited Real Madrid. And that he was one of the lads we 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. I never saw that coming.
“People saying ‘It’s fantastic what De Conde achieved with his experience regarding Lucca’s transfer!’? Sorry, but that’s not the case.
“In the end, I got a call from his agency at 11am on a Sunday, two days before the English transfer window closed: 'Liverpool is serious. This is the offer'. And the very next morning, Lucca was on a plane to Liverpool.
“I do take credit for the fact that we, as a club, chose that path. I don’t pick the starting lineup – let’s be clear about that – but at a certain point, we gave Lucca his chance. It might have only been in the Play-Off 2 stage, but we did it nonetheless.”