Liverpool's New Defensive Cornerstone: Jeremy Jacquet
Liverpool have their new defensive cornerstone – and he arrives with a point to prove.
Jeremy Jacquet’s £60m move from Rennes has finally been rubber-stamped, months after the deal was first struck and just in time for a full pre-season under new head coach Andoni Iraola. The 20-year-old has completed his rehabilitation from shoulder surgery and will walk into the AXA Training Centre later this month ready to train, not watch.
This is no low-key addition. Liverpool will pay an initial £55m, with a further £5m in add-ons, making Jacquet the second most expensive defender in the club’s history. Only Virgil van Dijk, the £75m game‑changer from Southampton in January 2018, sits above him in that list. The comparison is inevitable. The expectation, just as heavy.
A deal months in the making
Liverpool agreed the transfer back in January, beating off serious interest from across Europe, with Chelsea among the clubs circling. They moved early, backed their scouting, and then had to wait.
Shortly after the agreement on deadline day, Jacquet’s season was wrecked. In early February, during Rennes’ 3-1 defeat to Lens in Ligue 1, the centre-back fell awkwardly in the second half. He left the pitch in clear pain. Scans confirmed the worst: he would need shoulder surgery and his campaign was over before it had really begun.
For many clubs, that would have been a red flag. Liverpool held their nerve. The surgery went ahead a few weeks later, and Jacquet attacked his rehab with the same intensity that first attracted the club’s recruitment team. During his summer break, he worked to an individually tailored programme, building strength and confidence before his move to Merseyside became official on Wednesday.
Now he arrives not as a project who needs months of careful handling, but as a fit, ready-made option for Iraola from day one of pre-season.
“I feel really good, the first impressions are good and I am very happy to start here,” Jacquet told Liverpoolfc.com. “When I see the facilities, I can see myself there. I feel good here and I am very excited to get started. For me it’s a big dream, it’s a big club. A club like Liverpool, it’s a big dream for me.”
Learning under Van Dijk
Jacquet has signed a five-year contract with an option for a sixth. Liverpool are not thinking short term. They see a defender to build around for the next decade.
He will step into a centre-back group led by club captain Van Dijk, who is expected to join the summer tour of the United States after the Netherlands’ exit from the World Cup at the round-of-32 stage on Monday. Joe Gomez and Giovanni Leoni complete a unit that blends experience, versatility and raw potential.
Inside the club, there is a firm belief that in Jacquet and Leoni, signed from Parma for just under £30m 11 months ago, Liverpool have secured the best young defensive talents from France and Italy. It is a bold claim, and one that will be tested in the Premier League glare.
For Jacquet, the presence of Van Dijk is a gift. The 20-year-old is understood to be particularly eager to work alongside the two-time Premier League winner, who turns 35 this month. Few defenders in the modern era have redefined a back line the way Van Dijk did at Anfield. Training with him every day is an education no video analysis can match.
A changing of the guard
The timing of Jacquet’s unveiling carries its own symbolism. On the same day Liverpool confirmed his arrival, Real Madrid formally completed their move for Ibrahima Konaté, who leaves Anfield as a free agent.
Liverpool had been locked in talks with Konaté’s representatives for close to two years but could not reach an agreement on a new contract. The France international, once seen as a long-term pillar of the defence, departs for La Liga without a transfer fee.
That loss stings. Elite centre-backs are among the most prized assets in the modern game, and losing one for nothing is not part of any ideal plan. Yet the club’s response has been decisive: a record-level investment in the next generation.
Jacquet does not replace Konaté like-for-like in experience, but he does represent a clear strategic shift. Younger, mouldable, and locked into a long-term deal, he fits the profile of a squad being reshaped under Iraola’s watch.
Leoni, recovery and competition
The picture at centre-back is not complete without Giovanni Leoni. Signed at 19 and immediately earmarked as a future starter, the Italian’s Liverpool career stalled almost as soon as it began. An ACL injury on his debut against Southampton in the Carabao Cup last September has kept him out since.
It is still unclear when Leoni will be ready to return to full training. He has been back in the gym at the AXA Training Centre for some time, and Iraola is expected to provide an update later this month. Liverpool will be cautious. ACL recoveries are measured in careful steps, not bold predictions.
When Leoni does return, the competition will be fierce. Van Dijk remains the standard. Gomez offers flexibility across the back line. Jacquet arrives with a price tag that demands involvement. Leoni will have to fight his way back into a pecking order that is suddenly crowded with talent.
That is exactly how Liverpool want it. For years, the debate around Anfield centred on whether the club had enough depth at centre-back. Now, the question is different: who starts, and who waits?
A new defensive chapter
Jacquet walks into a club in transition. A new head coach. A reshaped back line. A fanbase that has grown used to competing for the biggest prizes and will expect no lowering of standards.
He also walks into a dressing room that knows what it means to carry the weight of a huge fee. Van Dijk absorbed that pressure and transformed a team. Alisson did the same from goal. Liverpool will not ask Jacquet to become a legend overnight, but they will expect presence, personality and resilience.
The shoulder has healed. The paperwork is done. The pre-season schedule looms.
Liverpool have paid for potential and personality at the heart of their defence. Now they find out if Jeremy Jacquet is the next great Anfield centre-back – or the first building block of something entirely new.
