Liverpool are hoping to win the race for Rennes centre-back Abdelhamid Ait Boudlal, according to reports in Morocco.
The Reds are said to be one of several teams interested in the 19-year-old, along with Newcastle.
Le360Sport claim that Ait Boudlal has received a “concrete offer” from Arne Slot’s side while he has “met” directly with representatives of their Premier League rivals.
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Nice, Lille and two Spanish teams are also believed to be keen on signing the defender, who has very limited experience of senior football.
What do fans need to know about Ait Boudlal?
The teenager started out life at AC Marrakech’s academy, where he spent three years between 2012 and 2025. He then moved on to the Academie Mohammed VI, where he was spotted by scouts from Rennes.
Ait Boudlal only made the switch to France last summer, spending some time with the B team (making 6 appearances in Championnat National 3) before being loaned out to Ligue 2 side Amiens during the January transfer window.
During his time in the French second tier, he played 9 games in total, with 8 of them being starts.
Liverpool are looking to add numbers at centre-half
Ait Boudlal would not be ready to play for for the Reds’ first team if he made the switch to Anfield. He would be one for the future who would require some time out on loan to develop his game.
However, sporting director Richard Hughes is known to be keen on reinforcing the club’s senior options as well. A concerted effort was made to sign Dean Huijsen but the Spaniard opted to join Real Madrid instead.
Other targets such as Ajax’s Jorrel Hato and Benfica’s Tomas Araujo could well come under consideration, but the focus for the time being is securing the signatures of Bournemouth left-back Milos Kerkez and Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz.
In other news, David Ornstein has confirmed that Liverpool will allow another first-team player to leave on a free transfer