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Naby Keita made headline news this week as reports suggested that Liverpool will offer his club, Redbull Leipzig, £70 million for his services, having already had a £66 Million bid turned down earlier in the window.
Even in the current climate of inflated transfer fees this sounds like a awful lot of money for a 22 year old with only one season of elite level experience. Jurgen Klopp however, seems determined to get his man in a deal that would eclipse Liverpool’s current transfer record of £35 million which they paid for Andy Carroll. (LOL)
Unless you’re a regular watcher of the Bundesliga, chances are you had probably never even heard of Keita until reports emerged linking him with Liverpool, so who is he and is he any good? Let’s have a look…
Keita was born in Guinea and moved to France in 2013 to join Ligue 2 side Istres. Impressive displays in France then led to a move to the Austrian Bundesliga with Redbull Salzburg.
Keita immediately began to show his ability as a box to box midfielder in Austria and won the League and Cup double in both of his seasons with Salzburg. He also picked up the Austrian Bundesliga player of the season award before Salzburg’s sister club Red Bull Leipzig snapped him up for £10 Million.
Leipzig planned to ease him into the Bundesliga gradually, but he came off the bench to score the winner against Borussia Dortmund in their first game of the season and he has been a regular ever since.
He played a pivotal role in newly promoted Leipzig finishing 2nd in the Bundesliga, contributing 8 goals and 7 assists from central midfield.
According to whoscored.com Keita was the 5th best player in the Bundesliga last season, finishing behind only Thiago Alcantara, Arjen Robben, Robert Lewandoswki and Emil Fosberg.
Keita finished in the top six based on all the types of metrics a midfielder can be tested on, goals, assists, dribbles, passing, tackles and interceptions. This clearly shows just how much all-round talent the youngster possesses.
In many ways Keita looks to be a type of “Kante 2.0”, capable of breaking up opposition attacks in much the same way as the Premier League player of the season, but instead of then laying the ball off to more attack minded players, Keita is capable of transitioning his team into attack and contributing crucial goals and assists himself.
Moving to the Premier League will obviously be a big step up for the young player, but all things considered it’s easy to see why Klopp is so obsessed with signing him. Keita possesses a complete skill set that very few players can rival and has everything in his locker to become a truly world class midfield operator.
If Liverpool do manage to push through a deal before the window shuts and he goes on to fulfil his undoubted potential, what seems like a crazy transfer fee now, may well turn out to be a bargain.
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