Highlights:
- Liverpool have agreed a €35m deal, including add-ons, for 18-year-old Genk goalkeeper Lucca Brughmans, according to Fabrizio Romano.
- The plan is to loan him straight back to Genk, where he has been playing regularly, rather than bring him to Anfield immediately.
- That plan only holds if Liverpool don't sell current backup goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili, who has been linked with several Premier League clubs including Nottingham Forest.
Liverpool have completed a deal for Genk goalkeeper Lucca Brughmans, but completed doesn't mean settled. The transfer itself, worth €33m plus €2m in add-ons for the 18-year-old, is done. What isn't decided is where he'll actually spend the season, and that answer rests entirely with a different goalkeeper's future, one Brughmans has no say in at all.
Why isn't Brughmans just moving to Liverpool?
Because Liverpool don't currently need him there. The plan, according to Fabrizio Romano, is to send Brughmans straight back to Genk on loan, the same club and the same first-team role he's already established himself in as a teenager. From Liverpool's side, it's a classic young-talent move: secure the player now, let him keep playing regular first-team football abroad, and bring him in properly once he's ready.
That loan plan isn't locked in yet, though. It comes with a condition attached to someone else's transfer entirely.
What does Mamardashvili have to do with any of this?
Everything, as it turns out. Giorgi Mamardashvili is currently Liverpool's backup goalkeeper behind Alisson, and he's attracted interest from several Premier League clubs this summer, including Nottingham Forest. If Liverpool receive an offer for Mamardashvili they're willing to accept, Brughmans' loan to Genk gets scrapped. He would come straight into the Liverpool squad instead, taking over the backup role immediately rather than spending the season developing in Belgium.
In other words, an 18-year-old's season is currently being decided by a transfer he has no part in.
| The situation, with roughly 48 hours left | |
|---|---|
| Brughmans fee | €33m plus €2m in add-ons |
| Brughmans' age | 18 |
| Default plan | Loan back to Genk for the season |
| Trigger for change | Liverpool selling Giorgi Mamardashvili |
| Mamardashvili's suitors | Multiple Premier League clubs, including Nottingham Forest |
| Deadline | Monday evening |
Why does this matter beyond one goalkeeper?
Because it's a clean example of how deadline-day business actually works underneath the headlines. A single sale further down the goalkeeping chain can immediately change what happens to a player whose own transfer has already technically gone through. With roughly two days left in the window, Liverpool aren't just deciding on one deal, they're managing a sequence where one domino falling changes the next player's season entirely.
For now, Brughmans' most likely destination remains Genk. Whether that holds depends on how the next 48 hours go for a goalkeeper he's never met.
