Frimpong wants Liverpool move, with £29.5m release clause

Bayer Leverkusen wing back Jeremie Frimpong would be very keen on a move to Liverpool should the Premier League champions decide to step up their drive to replace Trent Alexander-Arnold this summer.

The 24-year-old has a release clause of €35million (around £29.5m) in his contract at the German club and is highly expected to be on the move.

Frimpong is on Liverpool’s shortlist and they like his profile should they decide to recruit in that position this summer. Other names have also been considered but given the release clause, it could be one that moves quite quickly if the Reds decide to push forward.

Reports in Germany have said it is close to a done deal but Mail Sport understands that is not the case just yet and suggestions that Frimpong held talks with Liverpool on Monday afternoon have also been denied by sources close to the player.

But the former Manchester City academy player, who also played for Celtic, is open to a move to the Premier League this summer.

The Reds need a new right back after vice-captain Alexander-Arnold last week put an end to a long-running saga over his future and will soon sign a long-term deal at Real Madrid.

Frimpong has played as an advanced wing back for Xabi Alonso’s Leverkusen and excelled in their against-the-odds Bundesliga triumph last season with 14 goals and 12 assists, while this season he has scored five and set up a further 12.

It is understood Leverkusen were first made aware of interest back in December 2024 and that has accelerated in the last six weeks since Alexander-Arnold told Arne Slot in March of his intention to leave.

Frimpong signed a mega-money boot deal with New Balance in January of this year with the manufacturing giant seeing him as a future face of European football.

Mail Sport reported that at the time and revealed that contract was worth around £20million, putting him in the same bracket as Erling Haaland and Lionel Messi’s deals with Nike and adidas respectively.

If Frimpong’s release clause is activated in the coming weeks or months, Scottish champions Celtic would bank a windfall of around £5.4m as his former club are entitled to 30 per cent of the profit made from him after his £11.5m move to Germany in 2021.

Frimpong is said to be a down-to-earth chap who set up his own foundation in 2024 which seeks to help youth players who do not manage to turn professional, offering them a range of services to help them in their next stage of life.

He said of the Pathways Project in the past: ‘There comes a day when you are told that being a professional footballer doesn't work out. Your dream is destroyed. You feel vulnerable. Depressed. Totally depressed.

‘I think it's important then that there are people who help you. You are just a child. You shouldn't have to do that alone either. That's why I started this project. I want to help the youth as much as I can.’