Liverpool have made their first splash in the summer transfer market by landing Alexis Mac Allister from Brighton.
Just six months on from playing a key role in Argentina’s World Cup triumph in Qatar, the 24-year-old playmaker has moved to Anfield in a cut-price bargain deal believed to be worth just £35million.
Mac Allister has put pen to paper on a five-year contract on Merseyside after passing a medical earlier this week and has been given the coveted No10 shirt that has been vacant since Sadio Mane’s departure to Bayern Munich last summer.
The switch comes after he played an integral part in Brighton’s incredible run to a sixth-place Premier League finish - just one place and five points behind Liverpool - and Europa League qualification this term under Roberto De Zerbi and predecessor Graham Potter.
“We are adding a very talented, very smart, very technically skilled boy to our squad and this is super news, really it is,” Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp told the official club website.
“I do not think the football world needs me to say too much about Alexis’ qualities because they are already pretty well known but it is clear that he is someone who can play in a number of positions in the midfield and is an all-rounder, I would say. He is calm and composed and someone with proper game intelligence.
“Of course, he is a player we have known about for a long time and I have watched him grow from a young boy coming into the Premier League to a man who helped his country win the World Cup. That is quite a journey.
“My admiration and respect for what Brighton are doing is well known and Alexis has been a part of the journey that they have been on in becoming one of the toughest and best sides in the Premier League.
“I’m really happy his next steps will now be with us and we get to work with a player who is already excellent and experienced, but also has so much more to come given he is just 24 years old.”
Click through our gallery above to see the first pictures of Alexis Mac Allister as a Liverpool player!
