Hugo Ekitike was dropped from Eintracht Frankfurt’s starting XI for Saturday’s pre-season friendly against FSV Frankfurt amid increasing speculation about a possible summer move to Liverpool.
As reported by Mail Sport earlier this week, Arne Slot’s Reds are readying a bid to sign the France Under-21 international, who is said to be keen on a move to Anfield.
Newcastle United recently had a £70million bid rejected for Ekitike as it fell £16m short of his release clause.
Liverpool have also been linked with interest in Alexander Isak, Yoane Wissa, Ollie Watkins and Victor Osimhen this summer, but Ekitike, 22, now appears to be the most likely candidate to bolster the Premier League champions’ attack.
Ekitike scored 22 goals in 48 games for Frankfurt last season and now looks set to move away from the Bundesliga outfit.
After Ekitike was left on the bench for Saturday’s friendly, French journalist Fabrice Hawkins declared via X (formerly Twitter) that the striker was ‘getting closer to Liverpool’, and that he had already agreed personal terms on a contract until 2031.
Hugo Ekitike, 22, appears to be edging towards a summer move from Frankfurt to Liverpool
Liverpool manager Arne Slot is looking to add another attacking player to his current squad
Hawkins added that Ekitike would stay on the bench because negotiations between Frankfurt and Liverpool were ongoing, with a ‘final green light expected soon’.
Ekitike remained an unused substitute for Eintracht in a 3-2 friendly win on Saturday afternoon.
Liverpool have already signed two players from Germany this summer.
Jeremie Frimpong arrived from Bayer Leverkusen for £29.5m on June 1 before being joined at Anfield by £116m team-mate Florian Wirtz 19 days later.
Liverpool’s summer signings will be hoping to make their Premier League debuts against Crystal Palace on August 15.
Another Liverpool target, Isak, was left out of Newcastle’s 4-0 friendly defeat by Celtic on Saturday. Magpies manager Eddie Howe later explained: ‘I chose to send him home.
‘The last thing Alex wants if he is not playing is to be sat in the stand and under that scrutiny, then if he wasn’t going to play today, we mutually agreed he shouldn’t be here.
‘It was my decision. He travelled to Glasgow with us, but I decided to send him home due to the speculation around him. Both [Joelinton and Isak] are fit but not ready to play. Alex has trained and is fine but we didn’t want to take the risk with him.
Alexander Isak was not included in Newcastle’s squad for Saturday’s friendly vs Celtic
‘Yes, I’ve had discussions with him, but that’s not abnormal,’ he added. ‘I respect a player’s career and how short it is. Alex has been really good, he’s trained really well and I realise there’ll be noise around him.
‘We have a few of those players who are irreplaceable. Your top players are so hard to find, so hard to recruit and so hard to develop. So when you have them, you need to treasure them. Of course we’re desperate to keep him as part of our team.
‘I think it’s difficult for me to ever give 100 per cent clarity on any player, I’d never do that.
‘All I can say is Alex is happy at Newcastle, he loves the players, the staff, the team. I’ve never had any issue with him and I’m confident he’s going to be here at the start of the season.’
