🚨BREAKING NEWS LIVE: Joel Matip Replacement Liverpool move for Bundesliga star ‘possible’ as club director drops major transfer hint

Liverpool are keen to sign a new centre-back before the transfer window slams shut and Bayer Leverkusen star Odilon Kossounou is on their shortlist, per reports.

Arne Slot wants to bring in a replacement for Joel Matip, who left the Reds as a free agent at the beginning of June after his contract expired.

Reds youngster Sepp van den Berg has joined Brentford in a deal worth £25m, including add-ons. Joe Gomez could also depart Anfield amid interest from Chelsea, which only increases Liverpool’s need for a new centre-back.

As previously reported, Liverpool have shown an interest in Bayer Leverkusen centre-back Piero Hincapie amid rumours he could leave for £50m this month.

Tottenham and clubs around Europe are also admirers of Hincapie so Liverpool may find it difficult to sign him – especially with his high price tag.

Kossounou is another name on the shortlist of Liverpool’s sporting director Richard Hughes and he could be a more affordable than his Leverkusen teammate.

Kossounou, 23, made 34 appearances for the German club last season and played a key role in Xabi Alonso’s side winning the Bundesliga title and DFB-Pokal.

Liverpool keeping an eye on Leverkusen defender

Leverkusen’s Director of Sport Simon Rolfes spoke in a recent interview about the future of some of his players, and Kossounou was a big topic of conversation.

Rolfes admitted that the youngster’s departure ‘is possible’ before the end of the window due to the growing interest from the Premier League and elsewhere

In principle, we are also planning for the future with Odilon,” he said.

“Because we saw last year that he was a player with a lot of quality and a lot of potential. (But) they (players) have the feeling: ‘Okay, how much playing time can I get, what is my perspective? And then sometimes they get the idea or consider being able to change again.

“I can’t say that,” he added when asked about whether a transfer will happen.

“But in principle, he is actually a player with whom we are planning. But of course, it is possible that there will be one or two changes in our squad.”

Reports suggest that Newcastle and Crystal Palace are also considering a move for Kossounou, but that could depend on the future of Marc Guehi.

the Palace centre-back so far – the latest of which amounting to £65m with add-ons – and they haven’t given up hope of signing him.

Newcastle could turn to Kossounou as an alternative or the Eagles could replace Guehi with him, although the Eagles are focusing on deals for Wolfsburg’s Maxence Lacroix and Benfica’s Tomas Araujo as things stand.

Liverpool will have to move quickly if they want to sign Kossounou so it will be interesting to see if they do launch an offer for him.