Castello Lukeba is going to set back any interested party a significant fee in the upcoming transfer windows.
The Bundesliga star has been attracting a great deal of interest from the Premier League of late, with the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool thought to be interested in his services.
The Blues, of course, may very well have something to say about given they’ve enjoyed a proportionally higher share of the links in recent months.
However, none more so than Spanish giants Real Madrid, if reports are to be believed.
RB Leipzig want to keep Castello Lukeba
Christian Falk reports that the RB Leipzig centre-back will cost €90m [£75.4m] with a January exit now considered unlikely.
Understandably so, it has to be said, with the player hardly considered the finished product (far from it) at 21 years of age.
“Leipzig know they can’t keep a player if a Premier League side is interested. We have many examples in the past; Josko Gvardiol (Manchester City), Christopher Nkunku (Chelsea), and Dominik Szoboszlai (Liverpool). They always do the same trick,” the German journalist reports for CaughtOffside’s Daily Briefing.
“Castello Lukeba had a contract until 2028, so they’ve given him more money (he’s earning €6m a year) and had his terms extended until 2029. He now has a release clause in his contract worth €90m. So, if someone is willing to pay this, they can have it, but I can’t see anyone paying this amount of money right now.
“He has to get really good for someone to go big for his services in the summer window. At the moment, I think he’s safe at Leipzig with this “handicap” you could say. They want to keep him. I don’t think he’s a topic for the January transfer window.
“In the summer, if someone needs a brilliant defender and can pay this money, then I think things get interesting. Remember, they extended Lukeba’s contract because Real Madrid were concretely interested, more than any other club from the Premier League.”
For Liverpool’s part, one would have to imagine sporting director Richard Hughes will be casting an eye back to the Reds’ £75m deal for Virgil van Dijk back in 2017.
It’s a different market, of course, but is the French defender’s value really comparable to the Merseysiders’ Dutch skipper seven years ago?
That’s going to be a hard option to justify loosening the purse strings for!
Nonetheless, given Chelsea and Real Madrid are hardly alone in their interest, it wouldn’t be entirely unprecedented to see a major European outfit take the plunge for fear of missing out.
It just seems unlikely that it will be Liverpool to commit a vast sum either in the upcoming window or the summer of 2025.