{"id":192462,"date":"2025-06-17T19:29:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T19:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/192462\/"},"modified":"2025-06-17T19:29:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T19:29:15","slug":"liverpools-blockbuster-transfer-for-new-philippe-coutinho-collapsed-despite-successful-medical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/192462\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool’s blockbuster transfer for ‘New Philippe Coutinho’ collapsed despite successful medical"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nabil Fekir’s failed move to Liverpool remains a mystery for years after the midfielder was denied his Anfield dream.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Frenchman<\/a> looked all set to join the Reds<\/a> from Lyon in the summer of 2018, with a \u00a358.5million deal reportedly agreed and the player even completing a medical, only for the transfer to fall through in a shock twist.<\/p>\n

\"Nabil<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Nabil Fekir was denied his Premier League dream seven years agoCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

This is certainly something Liverpool fans will be hoping to avoid a repeat of over the coming days as they eagerly await the announcement of Florian Wirtz’s arrival.<\/p>\n

The German playmaker is set to undergo his Reds medical later this week ahead of a \u00a3116.5million transfer<\/a>\u00a0from Bayer Leverkusen.<\/p>\n

Wirtz<\/a> has agreed to sign for the\u00a0Premier League champions<\/a>\u00a0in a package that could eventually become a British record deal, joining for an initial fee of \u00a3100m that could rise to \u00a3116.5m.<\/p>\n

But supporters will know not to celebrate before the star signs on the dotted line, given their history with attacking midfield targets.<\/p>\n

This is because, seven years ago, Liverpool found themselves in an eerily similar situation, this time with Fekir.<\/p>\n

A stunning 2017\/18 campaign with Lyon followed by World Cup glory with France led to the Reds highlighting him as the ideal replacement for Philippe Coutinho<\/a>, who had joined Barcelona earlier that year.<\/p>\n

However, despite a deal and personal terms being agreed, and Fekir even passing his medical, the move suddenly collapsed.<\/p>\n

This sparked a host of conspiracy theories as to why, with reports suggesting a knee problem identified during Fekir’s medical had caused the deal to break down.<\/p>\n

Fekir had previously torn his ACL on international duty back in the 2015\/16 season, which sidelined him for most of the year, before suffering two further knee injuries during his time in France.<\/p>\n

The now 31-year-old ended up staying one more season with Lyon before joining\u00a0LaLiga\u00a0side Real Betis<\/a> the following summer for \u00a318m, a huge drop on the fee north of \u00a350m Liverpool had been prepared to pay.<\/p>\n

\"Wirtz<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Wirtz to Liverpool is about to be the new British-record transfer\"Fekir<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Fekir had been tipped to fill the void left by ex-Liverpool hero Coutinho, who starred for the club between 2013 and 2018Credit: getty<\/p>\n

But the tale of his failed move to Anfield was far from over, with Fekir later denying claims that a failed medical had scuppered the deal.<\/p>\n

After first slamming these rumours as ‘lies’<\/a> in 2019, the 25-cap former France star finally opened up on the real reason in 2021, when he revealed his agent had prevented the transfer from going through<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He told the Times in 2021: \u201cIt was a dark moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw plenty of things which weren\u2019t true. It was said the knee stopped me going to Liverpool but that wasn\u2019t true. <\/p>\n

“I went to Clairefontaine [France\u2019s football centre near Paris], and they did all the proof [medical] and the knee was fine. <\/p>\n

“I had a problem with my agent, my adviser. It was the agent responsible for the deal not going through. <\/p>\n

\"Fekir<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Fekir won the Copa del Rey with Real Betis in 2021Credit: AFP<\/p>\n

“They needed to find a reason for the deal not going through and so they blamed it on the knee.”<\/p>\n

After the deal fell through, Fekir parted ways with his agent, Jean-Pierre Bernes, who had blamed the failed move on knee problems.<\/p>\n

The transfer would have seen him follow Alisson Becker<\/a>, Fabinho, Naby Keita and Xherdan Shaqiri to Liverpool that summer, who went on to win the\u00a0Champions League<\/a>\u00a0in their first season on Merseyside<\/p>\n

And the Frenchman admitted it had been difficult to accept missing out on his chance to join the Premier League giants, which would have also meant playing under legendary coach Jurgen Klopp<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cOf course I was disappointed not to go to Liverpool, very disappointed because Liverpool are a great club. <\/p>\n

\u201cI met the coach, Jurgen Klopp, and it went well. After meeting him, I wanted to join Liverpool even more. He\u2019s a good person. It was really difficult to deal with as I really wanted to go to Liverpool. <\/p>\n

\"Liverpool<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Liverpool won a sixth Champions League title in 2019, which would have been Fekir’s first season at the club had he completed the would-be transferCredit: AFP or licensors<\/p>\n

“It was a moment that was not easy for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

After moving on to Real Betis in the aftermath of his Liverpool heartache, Fekir went on to make 165 appearances in six years in Spain, scoring 29 times, before completing a move to current side Al Jazira in the UAE Pro League in August 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nabil Fekir’s failed move to Liverpool remains a mystery for years after the midfielder was denied his Anfield…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[199,3018,2912,94,4198,179,10039,78622,73320,79,2357,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-192462","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-barcelona","9":"tag-bayer-leverkusen","10":"tag-florian-wirtz","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-jurgen-klopp","13":"tag-liverpool","14":"tag-lyon","15":"tag-nabil-fekir","16":"tag-philippe-coutinho","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-transfers","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114700364553166520","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}