Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp is stepping up his interest in Lille hitman Victor Osimhen after ordering detailed scouting reports. Klopp is keen on the Nigerian international, who has already scored 13 goals in all competitions for the Ligue 1 side so far this season.
Osimhen only joined Lille in July after they sold Pepe to Arsenal and was named Ligue 1 Player of the Month in October.
He scored 20 goals for Belgian side Charleroi, on loan from Wolfsburg, last season and has continued in the same rich vein of form in this campaign.
Klopp is looking to bolster his striking options especially as Mohamed Salah isn’t as deadly in front of goal as he was two seasons ago.
Salah, who has been linked with Real Madrid, scored 44 goals in his first season at Anfield then 27 in all competitions last season and has managed 13 so far in this campaign.
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Several Premier League clubs have taken a look at Osimhen who has scored four goals in nine appearances for the Super Eagles.
Lille accept that it is only a matter of time before they will be forced to cash in on Osimhen but would like to keep him at the Stade Pierre Mauroy until the summer.
Reports from France that Lille will not consider bids for the 20-year-old in January.
Osimhen is under contract for another four-and-a-half years having penned a five-year deal when he joined.
“OK, from a sporting point of view, there are not a lot of reasons to not sign him. What a player he is.
“But it is about the money of course. No chance. Absolutely no chance. Sorry for killing that story.”
And on Sancho he said: “He’s a very good player. I have no clue where these kind of things are coming from, but it cannot come from us because we never speak about it.
“If we would be involved, nobody would know about it apart from a person who wouldn’t speak about it. There’s nothing to say.
“Cost? That’s one issue, 100 per cent that would be an issue. But there’s nothing to say about it.
“I know how it sounds, but I cannot change that. There’s nothing to say about it, which can mean there’s absolutely nothing to say about it.”
Liverpool have already announced one new signing in recent weeks, with Takumi Minamino joining from Red Bull Salzburg in January.
The Japanese midfielder will become the first ever Asian to play for the Merseyside club in the Premier League era and cost only £7.25million.
