Liverpool have been involved in a few transfer sagas over the years, but few were as drawn out as the one involving Nabil Fekir.
The club made a number of big signings in the summer of 2018, spending the money they had received in the Philippe Coutinho deal the previous winter. Fabinho was brought in from Monaco, Alisson Becker arrived from Roma, while Naby Keita finally came from RB Leipzig.
All three were big money moves, with Fekir originally meant to be amongst them.
A deal was agreed with Lyon to sign the attacking midfielder for a fee of close to €60million, with personal terms also sewn up. A medical was carried out, with the Frenchman even doing his in-house media interviews ahead of the official announcement.
Then out of nowhere, the whole thing went up in flames.
It was previously rumoured that Liverpool had pulled out of the deal after discovering a potential knee issue during the player's medical. However, Fekir claims this was not the case.
Speaking to The Times, the now Real Betis player said that it was an issue with his agent that stopped him from moving to Anfield.
It was a dark moment.
I saw plenty of things which weren’t true. It was said the knee stopped me going to Liverpool but that wasn’t true. I went to Clairefontaine [France’s football centre near Paris], and they did all the proof [medical] and the knee was fine.
I had a problem with my agent, my adviser. It was the agent responsible for the deal not going through.
They needed to find a reason for the deal not going through and so they blamed it on the knee. The knee was an excuse.
Of course I was disappointed not to go to Liverpool, very disappointed because Liverpool are a great club.
I met the coach, Jürgen Klopp, and it went well. After meeting him, I wanted to join Liverpool even more. He’s a good person. It was really difficult to deal with as I really wanted to go to Liverpool.
It was a moment that was not easy for me.
Fekir would join Betis for a fee of less than €20million only a year later, meaning Lyon certainly missed out on quite the windfall as a result.
Now 28-years old, he has performed admirably in La Liga, scoring 12 goals and registering 13 assists during his first two seasons in the division.
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