Premier League giants Liverpool showed an interest in Daichi Kamada before the Japan international moved from Eintracht Frankfurt to Serie A with Lazio, according to an agent who worked on the deal.
Daichi Kamada, had his contract not expired at Frankfurt, could have been a £25 million player. At least, that is the view of agent Gianluca di Carlo. A point difficult to argue with, considering that Kamada had become one of the Bundesliga’s finest, attack-minded midfielders, not to mention a key figure in the Japan team who stunned Germany and Spain at the Qatar World Cup.
Kamada would eventually join Lazio on a free.
And a deal which felt at the time like something of a coup for Maurizio Sarri’s side is made all the more impressive when you consider the other clubs who were showing an interest at the time, Di Carlo insisting that Liverpool were in pursuit at one stage.
Liverpool looked at Lazio ace Daichi Kamada
“The player was (available) on a free transfer, and many clubs had gone for him,” Di Carlo tells Sport Italia. “Milan, Liverpool, Benfica, Real Sociedad (were all interested).”
AC Milan reached an agreement to sign Kamada at the end of May, per The Athletic. Only for discussions to fall through after some big changes behind the scenes at the San Siro.
“The Rossoneri changed the management. And it appears to me that there were no longer any references to the agreements that had been made. In all this, Lazio got wind of the deal and the entourage immediately liked the idea,” Di Carlo adds.
“We are talking about a player who would normally be worth 27 or 28 million euros.”
Kamada moves to Italy for free
The extent of Liverpool’s interest, meanwhile, is not quite certain. Perhaps Kamada was viewed at Anfield as an affordable back-up, had Jurgen Klopp’s side failed to agree deals with their leading midfield targets Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai.
Kamada, who plays alongside Wataru Endo at international level, has scored just one league goal so far for a Lazio side underwhelming in tenth place.
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