Liverpool have often found themselves bettered by Real Madrid over recent years.
The La Liga giants beat the Reds in two Champions League finals during Jurgen Klopp’s tenure. Including last season, Madrid knocked Liverpool out of the tournament for three consecutive years.
And it hasn’t only been on the pitch that Real have had the upper-hand. Only today Jude Bellingham sent a reminder as to why he chose the Bernabeu over Anfield last summer.
Aurelien Tchouameni was another to turn Liverpool down in favour of joining Los Blancos. After his recent rejection of the Reds, Xabi Alonso looks likely to end up at Madrid as well.
According to agent Bruno Satin though, Real aren’t the only of Spain’s ‘Big Two’ to have gained a player over Liverpool in recent years. Barcelona have also had their fun.
Liverpool miss out on Jean-Clair Todibo
Back in the summer of 2019 Liverpool had just won the Champions League. The team was arguably right at its peak under Jurgen Klopp and on the way to winning the Premier League the following year.
It had been expected that fresh from being crowned European champions, the Reds might throw their weight about in the transfer market.
However, Liverpool eventually did virtually nothing. The only genuine first-team signing was Adrian on a free transfer. Sepp van den Berg also arrived, but that was it.
Speaking to Radio Kiss Kiss Napoli via TuttomercatoWeb though, Satin has claimed that Liverpool did actually look to sign Jean-Clair Todibo from Toulouse.
With Barca also in for him though, Todibo’s former agent says the centre-back wanted to move to Spain.
“Giuntoli [then Napoli sporting director] asked me, but there were Liverpool, Juventus and Leverkusen, but then the boy wanted Barcelona and we chose to accommodate him,” says Satin.
Could Liverpool still sign Jean-Clair Todibo
Joining Barcelona ended up being a poor move for Todibo. He played just five times for the Catalans before being farmed out to Schalke, Benfica and then Nice on-loan. In the end, the Frenchman moved to Nice on a permanent basis in 2021.
Since then, he’s steadily been rebuilding his reputation as one of Europe’s most promising centre-backs. As recently as last summer he was heavily linked with a move to Liverpool, with 90min slapping a £35m price-tag on him.
Still only 24, Todibo has two senior caps for France and has also been strongly tipped to join Manchester United.
With the Reds still in need of a centre-back signing, Todibo could still be an option. Liverpool tend to track these players for a long while, so it’s unlikely that he’s left their radar after 2019’s near miss.