Liverpool Targets PSG Starlet Ibrahim Mbaye Amid Barcola Talks
Liverpool’s pursuit of Paris Saint-Germain’s Bradley Barcola has taken a twist – with another young PSG forward now firmly in their sights.
FourFourTwo understands Liverpool have agreed a contract with Barcola, the World Cup star who has been a headline target all summer. But with PSG holding out for a nine-figure fee and refusing to be rushed, the deal is stuck in familiar big-club deadlock. Liverpool, wary of being strung along, have started to widen the net.
And that’s where Ibrahim Mbaye comes in.
Mbaye deal in place as Liverpool hedge their bets
RMC Sport report that Liverpool have now struck terms with Mbaye, agreeing a five-year deal with the Senegalese teenager as they push on with a parallel move. The Barcola negotiations remain active, but the Merseyside club are no longer putting all their energy into one door that may never fully open.
Liverpool coveted Barcola from the outset of the window, seeing him as a marquee wide option after the departure of Mohamed Salah. Yet the very real prospect of missing out has forced them to turn to his team-mate, a player they have monitored without ever ruling out.
This is not a simple either/or. The club are keeping both possibilities alive.
PSG’s crowded attack fuels exits
PSG’s forward line has been in flux all summer. Goncalo Ramos has already left for Ruben Amorim’s Milan, while the French champions have accelerated moves for World Cup final hero Ferran Torres and Ajax prospect Mika Godts to refresh their attacking options.
Luis Enrique’s side hardly lacked firepower last season. First-choice trio Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Desire Doue and Ousmane Dembele combined for 52 goals in all competitions. Barcola added 13, Mbaye just three, as both youngsters largely operated as back-up options.
Barcola actually featured more than any other attacker across Ligue 1, the Coupe de France and the Champions League, yet he still found himself on the fringes when the stakes were highest. Mbaye’s role was even more limited. Enrique stuck to a clear formula in the biggest games and trusted his established stars.
Dembele’s numbers underline that approach. He started only 10 league matches for the eventual French champions, who have doubled down this summer on building elite depth to protect their main men for European crunch nights.
In that kind of environment, ambitious youngsters start to look elsewhere.
Premier League pull and Liverpool’s right-side puzzle
Both Barcola and Mbaye are understood to be keen on a Premier League move. The route to regular minutes under Andoni Iraola at Liverpool looks less blocked than at PSG, the competition a little less suffocating for emerging attackers.
So far, Liverpool’s only attacking reinforcement has been Spanish winger Victor Munoz, signed to help absorb the shock of losing Salah. The right flank, once owned by the Egyptian, now feels like a jigsaw still missing its defining piece.
On the left, it is a different story. Munoz, Rio Ngumoha, Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz can all operate from that side, leaving Liverpool with a clear surplus of left-wing options. The right remains the gap, the space where a new star can step in and reshape the forward line.
Mbaye, capable of operating on that flank, fits the profile. Young, quick, hungry, and far from the finished article – but with room to grow in a side that suddenly needs a new attacking reference point.
Liverpool’s hierarchy have seen enough transfer sagas to know how quickly they can collapse. By moving for Mbaye while keeping Barcola talks alive, they are refusing to be left empty-handed.
Now the question is simple: will PSG blink, or will Liverpool’s future on the wing be written not by the headline name they chased all summer, but by the teenager quietly waiting in the shadows?
