An in-depth look at 20-year-old Jérémy Chacquet, for whom Liverpool paid £60 million. Experts see him as the next Van Dijk.
On 3 Feb 2026 GMT+7, Liverpool completed the signing of 20-year-old French defender Jérémy Chacquet from Rennes in France’s Ligue 1 for a record £60 million.
Despite defensive struggles this season—conceding 33 goals in 24 Premier League matches—and injury issues, manager Jürgen Klopp’s team was willing to wait to sign Chacquet from Rennes until season’s end.
The immediate transfer wasn’t possible because Rennes refused to sell mid-season and insisted on a fee exceeding their previous record sale of £55.4 million when they sold Jérémy Doku to Manchester City in 2023.
Liverpool signed Jérémy Chacquet to a five-year deal until 2031, with an option for an additional year. The club believes he is a young defender with first-team experience beyond his years and internal analysis indicates a very high potential ceiling.
Julien Laurens, ESPN’s French football expert, said that despite the hefty price tag, Chacquet has all the attributes to become one of the world’s best center-backs in the coming years, with his height, speed, strength, aerial and one-on-one abilities, plus good game reading.
While his ball skills still have room to improve, he learns quickly and has the potential to reach a level comparable to Virgil van Dijk in the future.
This season at Rennes, he primarily played in a three-center-back system. At 18, he was loaned to Clermont in Ligue 2 for playing time before being recalled in January 2025. He has now played 36 Ligue 1 matches.
A key strength is his aerial game, winning 75.51% of his aerial duels, the highest rate among Ligue 1 defenders in the 2025–26 season.
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