Liverpool have confirmed that they have a deal in place to sign Cody Gakpo from Dutch giants PSV, subject to a work permit.
The 23-year-old will be an official Liverpool player when the winter transfer window opens, on the 1st of January.
Liverpool are set to pay £37 million for the attacker with that price tag set to rise to no more than £50 million.
PSV themselves announced that a deal had been agreed shortly after Jurgen Klopp’s men had beaten Aston Villa 3-1 in their first league game since the World Cup.
The tournament in Qatar made everyone pay attention to Gakpo’s talents as he became Holland’s main man scoring in the first three group games.
His club starts so far this season have been nothing short of remarkable as in all competitions he has got 13 goals and 17 assists in 24 appearances so he is set to add an extra spark to Liverpool’s frontline who will be missing Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz for at least another couple of months.
All in all, for PSV Eindhoven he has played 159 goals and got 105 goal contributions which is an excellent record.
He has won the Eredivisie, the KNVB Cup and the Johan Cruyff Shield twice in his four years playing senior football at the club whilst he also won the Dutch footballer of the year last season.
Speaking to Liverpoolfc.com about joining the Reds he said: “I feel really good, I’m really excited to be here. I’m looking forward to start training and start playing for this amazing club.
“I think this is a great club for me to come in and try to show what I can do and try to help the team to achieve more beautiful moments that they already did in the past years.”
The attacker who primarily plays on the left of an attack but this play in the number ten role for the Dutch in the World Cup will wear the number 18 for Liverpool, the number was previously worn by domestic cup cult hero Takumi Minamino and Gakpo’s fellow countryman Dirk Kuyt is one of the previous players to have worn it.
He also said: “I think for me personally it’s also good to develop here and there’s a lot of great players here [who] I can learn a lot of things from.
“I’m really looking forward to (playing at Anfield). I heard a lot of great stories about the stadium, about the atmosphere. I cannot wait.
“Obviously (my aim is) to win as many prizes as we can as a team, to perform well, to show the world what we can do as a team and what I can do as a player. And personally, just to keep developing and become a better player every season.”
Gakpo will be eligible to play in Liverpool’s league fixture against Brentford but the more realistic aim will be to fit and ready for the FA Cup match against Wolves.
A late Christmas present for all the red noses on Merseyside.
