Lille president Gerard Lopez has confirmed that Liverpool have held discussions to sign Nicolas Pepe this summer.
Pepe, 24, had an outstanding 2018/19 campaign, scoring 23 goals in all competitions as Lille secured qualification for the Champions League with a second-place finish in Ligue 1.
The French outfit have reportedly slapped a £70million price tag on Pepe, with Bayern Munich Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool all queuing up for the Ivorian.
Jurgen Klopp is looking to bring in an attacker this summer with Daniel Sturridge on his way out of Liverpool and it appears Pepe is being lined up as a replacement.
‘I know there have been discussions with the player, not with us as a club,’ Lille president Lopez told RMC Sport.
‘Liverpool have players in those positions and I read that maybe there were players who could leave, or not.
‘I am not particularly focused on Liverpool. But it is true that there have been discussions with agents.’
Lopez claimed that Lille had received two offers for Pepe before the Ivory Coast international set off for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.
‘We had two offers before the Africaa Cup of Nations,’ he added.
‘We’ll see after that, my position was to see if we could not do something before it, we had two proposals before it, I had two clubs.’
Ousmane Dembele has also been linked with Liverpool in recent weeks, but Barcelona appear to have ruled out a move for the 22-year-old attacker this summer.
Dembele is young, talented, different,’ Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu said at a press conference on Friday afternoon.
‘I consider him to be better than Neymar, he has a lot to grow and we want him to do it here.’
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