Liverpool lead race for PSG’s Ibrahim Mbaye

Liverpool have moved to the front of the queue for PSG teenager Ibrahim Mbaye, with CaughtOffside reporting that Arne Slot’s side are ahead of Aston Villa and Manchester City in the race to sign the 18-year-old Senegalese winger — a player valued at €30 million whose desire for regular football is driving a likely departure from Paris this summer.

Mbaye joined PSG’s academy in 2018 and was promoted to the first team last summer, making 21 Ligue 1 appearances in his debut senior season. The numbers look reasonable on paper but tell a more frustrated story underneath: fewer than 900 minutes from those 21 outings, with just three goal contributions to show for it. For a player of his age and ambition, peripheral involvement at PSG is not a development trajectory he is willing to accept. With his contract running until 2028, PSG hold the technical leverage, but the player’s desire to move is the factor most likely to force the issue.

Why Liverpool are leading the Ibrahim Mbaye race

The Salah factor is central. Mohamed Salah’s Anfield farewell at the end of this season leaves Liverpool with a vacancy on the right flank that no player currently in the squad is equipped to fill on a like-for-like basis. Slot and the recruitment team have been scouting Mbaye for some time with precisely this succession question in mind.

At 18, with Senegal international appearances already to his name and a profile built on directness, pace and the ability to create from wide positions, Mbaye fits the long-term brief: a young winger with the ceiling to eventually fill one of the most demanding wide roles in European football. Liverpool are not buying a finished product. They are buying the player they believe can become one.

Aston Villa and Man City are also in the picture

Villa’s interest is linked directly to the uncertainty around Jadon Sancho, whose long-term future at Villa Park beyond his loan from Manchester United is far from guaranteed. Emery’s side have been scouting Mbaye as a potential addition to their wide options for next season, and their likely Champions League position makes them an attractive destination for a teenager looking for his first sustained run of regular first-team football at a high level.

Manchester City’s involvement adds further credibility to the pursuit. Pep Guardiola’s side are rebuilding their attacking options after a difficult season and Mbaye’s profile — young, technically refined, explosive — aligns with the type of player Man City have historically developed into world-class performers. For Mbaye, the question of where he goes next is less about the transfer fee and more about who gives him the most convincing answer to one question: where will I play? Liverpool’s pressing need at right wing, given Salah’s departure, may make their pitch the hardest to resist.