Burkina Faso isn’t exactly known as being a hive of elite footballing talent, but it’s hard not to be excited about defender Edmond Tapsoba.
The 22-year-old is currently enjoying a meteoric rise. After spells with Salitas and US Ouagadougou in his native Burkina Faso, Tapsoba moved on to Leixoes in Portugal, and was turning out for Vitoria Guimaraes B not too long ago.
Now, Tapsoba finds himself as one of the most wanted young centre backs in the world having turned in superb performances for Bayer Leverkusen over the last year.
Leverkusen swooped to sign Tapsoba for £21million in 2020, and the Bundesliga club are now in a strong position to claim a massive profit on the 6ft 4in centre back.
The Express claim that Manchester United have been scouting Tapsoba ahead of a possible move, which would have to be his £44million release clause paid in full.
What a blow that would be for Liverpool, who allegedly made a move to sign Tapsoba on transfer deadline day, at least according to Sport1.
The Reds couldn’t afford to bring in Tapsoba on deadline day, but he surely remains on Michael Edwards’ radar given the uncertainty surrounding Liverpool’s centre backs.
Ben Davies is yet to even make his debut since arriving on deadline day, whilst Ozan Kabak has been shaky and may not be kept beyond the end of his loan spell from Schalke.
Tapsoba is a huge fan of Virgil van Dijk, much like many young centre backs around Europe are right now, and he would surely have loved a move to Anfield.
Now though, United appear to be barging in – and missing out on Tapsoba would have hurt enough, but seeing him join bitter rivals United would surely leave the Reds absolutely gutted.
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