Record-breaking bid! Liverpool launch $50m assault for Mexico's teenage sensation
Liverpool's rebuild under Andoni Iraola has found its boldest target yet. The Reds have gone all-in on the teenager the whole of Mexico is calling the new Pedri.
Details: According to David Faitelson, Liverpool have made an offer above $50 million (around £37.7 million) for Tijuana midfielder Gilberto Mora. The proposal was delivered through the player's representative, Rafaela Pimenta, and would constitute a historic, record-breaking figure for Xolos and for Mexican football as a whole.
Faitelson's revelation on TUDN is not standing alone. ESPN Mexico reported separately that several formal proposals have arrived at Tijuana, with one already at an advanced stage, and that negotiations involve club owner Jorgealberto Hank, Pimenta, the European club, Mora and his father. The timing detail that has set alarm bells ringing: Mora recently left the Mexico national team camp despite training normally and being described as eligible by coach Rafael Márquez, reportedly to eliminate any injury risk while the transfer is negotiated, with Faitelson bluntly stating that leaving him out was an indication the operation is progressing. The deal can only be formally concluded once Mora, who turns 18 on October 14, reaches adulthood under FIFA rules. Liverpool have tracked the midfielder since well before his World Cup breakout, when at 17 years and 240 days he became the youngest player ever to represent Mexico at a World Cup and the second-youngest to start a knockout match at the tournament after Pelé, and the Merseyside club first entered the race for his signature in July. If the bid is accepted, the teenager dubbed the Mexican Pedri would become the most expensive sale in the history of Mexican football, a stunning statement of intent from a Liverpool side already reshaping its squad under sporting director Julian Ward.
It's worth noting that Mora's rise has been vertiginous: from Tijuana's academy to a World Cup knockout start at 17 within months, and now potentially to Anfield before his 18th birthday, a trajectory that has Europe's elite scrambling to get ahead of Liverpool before the January window.
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Miguel Solomons
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