Ryan Gravenberch has officially joined Liverpool after leaving Bayern Munich.
Ryan Gravenberch, formerly of Bayern Munich, has joined Liverpool on a five-year contract.
The Dutchman, who joins Anfield for a cost that might reach £40 million, is the fourth addition to the club during a busy summer transfer season.
The Reds have had Gravenberch on their radar for some time, and club officials are rumored to have spoken with his representatives back in the spring as they began making preliminary plans for a rebuild that has since seen them bring in Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, and Wataru Endo to the lineup.
Gravenberch had been waiting to see what this season in Bavaria would hold for him under manager Thomas Tuchel, who had only recently joined the organization when he took over for Julian Nagelsmann in March.
Although Liverpool were offered hope that a deal could be reached earlier this week, the 21-year-old played for just nine minutes in each of Bayern’s three matches against Werder Bremen, Augsburg, and RB Leipzig this season.
Formal negotiations eventually began on Wednesday, and on Friday, Gravenberch received approval to go to Merseyside and conduct a medical.
Along with Mac Allister, Szoboszlai, and Endo, whose abilities are better suited for a holding role, Gravenberch gives Klopp another athletic and versatile midfielder to add to his ranks.
Although the former Ajax teenager established himself as more of a box-to-box midfielder, it is claimed Klopp believes the player is capable of maturing with time in a more defensive-minded role, which strengthens the alternatives at the base of the engine room for the long term. At Anfield this year, he will play with the number 38.
With the purchase, the club will have spent almost £150 million this summer, with over a third of that amount coming from the sales of Jordan Henderson and Fabinho, who joined Saudi Pro League clubs Al-Ittihad and Al-Ettifaq, respectively, in July.
In a portion of the field where up to five players have left, including James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Fabinho, Naby Keita, and Henderson, the Reds have added four new midfielders.
The decision to let Gravenberch leave, according to Bayern manager Tuchel, was simply based on the tactical structure and composition of his team at the Allianz Arena, he said in a statement on Friday.
