Liverpool Signs Young Defender Jeremy Jacquet for £60m
Liverpool have won the race for one of Europe’s most coveted young defenders, completing a £60m deal for Rennes centre-back Jeremy Jacquet.
The 20-year-old, who passed his medical with the Premier League champions on Deadline Day in February, joins for an initial £55m with a further £5m tied to performance-related add-ons. He has signed a five-year contract with an option for a sixth, a clear statement that Liverpool see him as a cornerstone of their next defensive era.
Choosing Anfield over Stamford Bridge
Chelsea matched Liverpool’s offer. Same money, same structure. Jacquet still chose Anfield.
For a player who has not yet played for the senior France side or tasted Champions League or Europa League football, that decision says plenty about the pull of Liverpool’s project — and about how directly they sold him on his role.
“For me it's a big dream, it's a big club. A club like Liverpool, it's a big dream for me,” Jacquet told Liverpoolfc.com. The excitement was written all over his first words. “I feel really good, the first impressions are good and I am very happy to start here… When I see the facilities, I can see myself there.”
This is not a squad-padding signing. He is arriving to live in the heart of Liverpool’s defence, not on the fringes of it.
A new pillar at the back
Jacquet will walk into a first-team centre-back group featuring Virgil van Dijk, Geovanni Leoni and Joe Gomez. That is not a gentle landing spot. It is a test of temperament as much as talent.
Liverpool, though, have been building towards exactly this type of move. Their transfer work over the last two windows has skewed young, with the average age of signings below 22. Jacquet fits that model perfectly: emerging elite talent, expensive because of what he might become rather than what he has already done.
He arrives on the back of a shoulder injury earlier this year, but the club are satisfied. Jacquet has completed his rehabilitation and is back in individual fitness work. Barring setbacks, he is expected to be available from the first day of pre-season, ready to learn the demands of Liverpool’s defensive line at full throttle rather than easing in mid-campaign.
“The real deal”
French football expert Julien Laurens has watched Jacquet’s rise closely and did not hold back in his assessment.
“He's the real deal,” Laurens said. “I know he's only 20, he hasn't played for France and he hasn't played in the Champions League or Europa League. He has a long way to go but he's been impressive last season, after they [Rennes] called him back from his loan in the second division, and this season, with Habib Beye.”
The comparison he reached for will make Liverpool supporters sit up.
“He reminds me of when William Saliba burst onto the scene in France with Saint-Etienne, or Wesley Fofana. It's about how much you value that potential and talent. You would pay a lot of money for someone who hasn't really proved much. It's a lot of money for such a young player.”
That last line cuts to the heart of this transfer. Liverpool are paying top-tier money for a defender who is still, in European terms, untested. But they are doing it because the underlying profile — physically, technically, mentally — looks built for the modern game and for their system.
A rising star, still unproven at the highest level
European football analyst Kevin Hatchard echoed that sense of huge upside wrapped in a small sample size.
“He's been seen as a rising star for quite some time. He's been a captain at numerous youth groups for France and seen as somebody who has all of the building blocks you need to be a modern centre-back,” Hatchard said on Sky Sports News. “He's good on the ball, good passing range, athletic, great in the air - but he doesn't have a long record of top-level football.”
The pathway so far has been promising rather than spectacular. A successful loan spell at Clermont in the second division, a recall to Rennes, and then a steep upward curve under coach Habib Beye. Enough to convince some of Europe’s biggest clubs that this is the moment to strike.
Rennes did not want to sell. Hatchard underlined just how reluctant they were to see him go.
“He had a loan at Clermont that went well. He's been playing for Rennes this season, but it shows you just how much they rate him that they really didn't want to let him go in this window. His coach Habib Beye said 'if we let him go this season, we'll have to downgrade our goals for the season'.”
When a club accepts that kind of sporting downgrade, it is usually because the fee and the player’s wishes leave them with nowhere else to turn.
Liverpool’s gamble on tomorrow
Strip it back, and this is Liverpool betting heavily on projection. They are trusting their scouting, their data, and their development environment to turn a gifted 20-year-old into a centre-back who can one day anchor a title-chasing defence.
The risk is obvious: Jacquet has no track record in the Champions League, no experience of the weekly scrutiny that comes with playing for Liverpool, and only a handful of top-flight games behind him. The reward, if he meets the expectations of those who know him best, is a defender in the Saliba–Fofana bracket for the next decade.
He will report for pre-season with a dream in his head and Virgil van Dijk across the training pitch, setting the standard. From there, it becomes a simple question with enormous consequences for Liverpool’s next cycle: can Jeremy Jacquet grow quickly enough to justify being the club’s next great defensive investment?
