Barcelona star Lamine Yamal is being linked with a sensational move to English football.
Yamal, 17, is widely regarded as one of the best young players in world football and is already being tipped as a future Ballon d'Or winner.
While he is unlikely to win this year's award, which will be announced on Monday, Yamal has been nominated after an excellent 2023/24 campaign.
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He scored seven goals and provided nine assists for Barcelona last season and then played a key role in Spain's victory at Euro 2024, winning Young Player of the Tournament.
Yamal has started the new season in excellent form, scoring five goals and providing seven assists in all competitions for La Liga leaders Barcelona – who travel to face rivals Real Madrid in El Clasico on Saturday.
Yamal is under contract with Barcelona until 2026, with his current deal reportedly including a €1bn (£830m) release clause.
Talks are ongoing over a new deal for the winger but now a fresh report claims that two Premier League clubs are considering a bold approach for the Spain international.
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Writing in his email newsletter for The Independent, chief football writer Miguel Delaney has claimed Arsenal and Liverpool are both monitoring Yamal and considering potential bids for the winger.
While Barcelona are unlikely to want to sell one of their prize assets, they could be forced to – due to the ongoing financial difficulties at the Catalan club.
After recently losing an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over their filings for the 2023/24 season, Barcelona are reportedly at risk of breaching Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations.
In their financial report for last season, Barcelona attempted to include the €267m (£222m) sale of 10 per cent of their broadcasting rights over the next 25 years as "other operating income" – counting towards their FFP calculations.
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However, UEFA insisted it should have been classed as "profits on disposal of tangible assets", which do not count towards FFP, and fined Barcelona €500,000 (£416,000) for misreporting their figures.
Barcelona appealed that decision to CAS but on Friday, the court ruled against the La Liga club – plunging them into further financial difficulty.
That has opened the door for rival clubs to poach some of their best talents, including Yamal.
Writing in his newsletter, Delaney said: "For now, rivals are again eyeing their brilliant youth products such as Gabi, Pedri and - of course - Lamine Yamal.
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"Arsenal and Liverpool would greatly fancy the latter, improbable as it seems right now. They will need to sell.
"The CAS case illustrated there are no real creative options left."
Earlier this month, Barcelona president Joan Laporte claimed the club had already rejected a €250m (£208m) bid for Yamal from an unnamed club this summer.
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It followed reports that Paris Saint-Germain attempted to sign the youngster as a replacement for Kylian Mbappe, who recently joined Real Madrid on a free transfer.
"There are those that think we have [transferred players] to balance the accounts," Laporta said in an interview with Barcelona's in-house television channel.
"But that is not the case. The players that have left have left for sporting reasons.
"[Ousmane] Dembele, [Marc] Guiu ... they won't have things as good as they did at Barca at any other club.
"We know what we are doing in the transfer market. We want those that are the best and who want to be here to stay - and we have shown that.
"A club came to me to sign Lamine for €250m and I said no."
Topics: Barcelona, Arsenal, Liverpool, Premier League, La Liga, Transfers, Transfer News, Lamine Yamal
Rory O'Callaghan