Report: Liverpool must pay £25m if they want teenager who could be ‘better’ than Hazard

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Liverpool will need to pay £25 million to sign teenage sensation Jeremy Doku from Vincent Kompany’s Anderlecht, according to Het Belang Van Limburg.

Anyone who read an interview with RSCA’s chief executive Karel van Eetvelt last week should not be surprised by such a statement.

Speaking to Het Niuewsblad, Van Eetvelt said that Liverpool would have no choice but to make an ‘insane offer’ if they were serious about signing an 18-year-old winger turning heads so quickly that he is causing a spate of whiplash among scouts all over Europe.

Doku famously turned down a move to Anfield in 2018, despite Jurgen Klopp turning on the charm offensive and pledging to make the Antwerp-born teenager the new Sadio Mane on Merseyside.

Back then, Doku was a little-known 15-year-old.

Now, he is one of the first names on Anderlecht’s team sheet and a starter for the Belgian national team, with his increasingly influential performances encouraging Liverpool to express their interest again (Nieuwsblad).

While the prospect of paying £25 million for an 18-year-old will have the cynics shaking their head and proclaiming that the ‘game has gone’, Liverpool would be paying for potential.

And Doku has more ‘potential’ than most.

This is a youngster who has been tipped to become ‘better’ than Eden Hazard if he makes his right foot as lethal as his left. The plaudits haven’t stopped there.

Belgium boss Roberto Martinez believes Doku is an ‘exceptional talent’ – and even Kevin de Bruyne was left awestruck after the fleet-footed forward rattled in his first international goal in the 5-1 Nations League thrashing of Finland earlier in September.

“He is nimble, fast and can dribble,” De Bruyne told Reuters. “Of course he can sometimes make a mistake – but who doesn’t? He is a diamond in the rough.”

Doku might not be in the rough for much longer, however.