Liverpool are reportedly among several Premier League clubs plotting a move for Tim Steidten after he left his role as sporting director at Bayer Leverkusen.
As per Kicker, the 43-year-old departed the BayArena – where he had worked with manager and former Reds midfielder Xabi Alonso – on Tuesday, with a number of teams across Europe immediately eyeing him up.
Football Insider reported of the Merseyside club’s apparent interest in trying to lure him to Anfield.
They stated: ‘Premier League giants Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham and Monaco are all admirers of Steidten and could make a move for the German in the next weeks and months.’
The Reds are on the lookout for a new sporting director, with Julian Ward stepping aside at the end of this season after just one year in the role, having succeeded Michael Edwards.
Steidten would come to Liverpool with a solid reputation, with Football Insider stating that ‘the 43-year-old is regarded as one of the best recruitment operators in Europe following his success in Germany’.
He leaves Leverkusen with an impressive track record in terms of recruitment, having lured the likes of Piero Hincapie, Edmond Tapsoba, Jeremie Frimpong, Moussa Diaby and Florian Wirtz to the BayArena.
His fine work is outlined in the current market values of those players (as per Football Transfers), relative to the fees for which they were signed.
For instance, Hincapie joined for €6.35m (Transfermarkt) and is now worth €32m; while Diaby is currently valued at €60m, four times what the Bundesliga club paid for him (Transfermarkt).
Wirtz may well be the best capture of the lot. Snapped up from Koln at underage level for a six-figure sum (Transfermarkt), his Football Transfers valuation now stands at a whopping €53.5m.
Steidten had been sought out by Chelsea six months ago when they were on the lookout for a reporting director (as per football.london), so he appears to be a sought-after figure behind the scenes.
He certainly seems like he could be an ideal candidate for Liverpool to consider, and hopefully he’d remain in the role for a prolonged period, following on from the relatively short timespan between the departures of Edwards and Ward.