Virgil van Dijk’s Liverpool contract runs out in the summer of 2027. At 35, the captain is in the final year of that deal, and Andoni Iraola’s side are not waiting to decide who should come next.
The name at the top of the list, according to Sky Germany reporter Florian Plettenberg, is Brighton’s 19-year-old Croatian center-back Luka Vuskovic. Plettenberg reports, via GiveMeSport, that Vuskovic is on the Liverpool shortlist for next summer and is being monitored regularly.
The problem for Liverpool is that Brighton are a long way from a willing seller.
Why Brighton can set the terms
Brighton signed Vuskovic in a club-record deal in the summer and have him under contract until 2031. Their valuation is around €100m, and no release clause will be available next summer.
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Fabian Hürzeler’s side are also second in the Premier League, five points behind Arsenal, with Vuskovic a regular in a back line that has conceded only seven goals this season. There is no sporting or financial pressure to sell.
The Real Madrid obstacle
The second complication sits with the player himself.
Plettenberg’s reporting is explicit: Vuskovic is settled under Hürzeler at the Amex, but his long-term ambition is to play for Real Madrid. That does not rule Liverpool out, but it does mean any €100m-plus offer would land against a personal dream pointing somewhere else.
Vuskovic’s stock keeps climbing. Dietmar Hamann, who watched him closely during his loan spell at Hamburg in the 2025-26 Bundesliga season, told Sky Germany in January 2026 that he could not remember anyone like him at that age.
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“I can’t think of a comparable player in the past ten or twelve years,” Hamann said.
Van Dijk’s own talks have not started
For Liverpool the timing matters. Van Dijk has confirmed no talks have opened over a new deal, and reporting around Anfield suggests any opening move will come in early 2027. That is the same window in which Brighton will be asked their price for Vuskovic, and Iraola is understood to want Van Dijk to stay for at least one more year on an extension.
If the captain signs, Liverpool gain breathing room on the succession. If he does not, Brighton will have the leverage.
Brighton paid a club-record fee to sign Vuskovic this summer, and at the current €100m valuation they would stand to more than double their money if they sold.
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