Doku is set to sign a five-year deal with Premier League champions Manchester City.
Belgium international reveals how close he was to joining Liverpool
Sadio Mané was one of the reasons why the transfer to Anfield did not materialize
Jeremy Doku, who is moving to Manchester City, has revealed how a conversation with Sadio Mané led to a possible move to Liverpool falling through.
90min understands City have agreed a €65m (£55m) transfer fee with Doku’s current club Rennes, including add-ons for the services of the talented winger. In addition, personal terms have been agreed for a five-year contract.
Official confirmation of that move now looks imminent pending a successful medical and some quotes have surfaced in the run-up to the transfer about how Doku was close to joining a Premier League club before.
Aged just 15 before signing his first professional contract with Anderlecht, the Belgian has attracted considerable interest from Liverpool, who sent Jurgen Klopp and several first-team players to persuade Doku to join Anfield.
One of the first-team players sent to Doku was Sadio Mané, although the future City star spoke about it
Ouest-France in 2021 that the conversation they had did not necessarily go as it should.
“I spoke a lot with Mane but we didn’t really talk about football. We talked about everything,” Doku said. “He told me that I was young, that I still had time… he didn’t want to convince me or tell me: ‘Come here, you will succeed .’ So I prefer to be careful. I knew what my trajectory should look like. I knew which path to follow and at that moment I knew I had to stay at Anderlecht.\”
Doku opted to stay at Anderlecht before moving to Rennes in 2020, where he made a huge impression by becoming a regular in Belgium’s senior squad.
City could expect his goal-scoring return to improve, with Doku netting just 10 goals in his 74 Ligue 1 appearances.
