By OkayGoal 
Since Mohamed Salah’s Anfield exit his contract terminated a year early before he moved on to Trabzonspor, the right side of Liverpool’s attack has been the club’s single biggest priority this summer. Victor Munoz has already arrived, Rio Ngumoha is waiting for his chance, and a big-money swoop for Bradley Barcola remains stuck around his reported £145m valuation. But it’s a different PSG academy graduate who now looks like the frontrunner to fill the void: 18-year-old winger Ibrahim Mbaye.
Reports over the past week suggest Liverpool have pulled clear of Bayer Leverkusen and RB Leipzig in the race, with Mbaye’s new representative, super-agent Jorge Mendes, holding advanced talks on his client’s behalf. PSG are said to be looking for a fee in the region of €40-50m, a modest number by modern standards, and one that reflects both his age and the fact that Paris are willing sellers given how stacked their forward line already is. So what exactly are Liverpool getting, and why does he make so much tactical sense?
Ibrahim Mbaye showed genuine World Cup pedigree, despite his age
Mbaye isn’t a punt on potential alone. He made his PSG debut at just 16 in August 2024 and has racked up 42 appearances for the European champions since, an extraordinary total for someone barely out of school. He has represented Senegal at the 2026 World Cup, where he became the youngest African player ever to score at the tournament, netting against France, the country he actually represented at youth level before switching allegiance. For a teenager, his level of big-game exposure is unusually high.
The most interesting part of Mbaye’s profile is his footedness. He’s right-footed and plays predominantly off the right, the opposite pairing to Liverpool’s recent wide forwards, who have typically been left-footed players cutting in from the right, or right-footed players cutting in from the left. That makes him a much more natural fit for a genuine outside-in winger role: someone who can attack the byline directly, beat a full-back on the outside, and still comfortably cut inside when the space invites it.
He’s also an unusually composed dribbler for his age, capable of operating in tight, congested areas rather than needing acres of space to be effective. He can absorb contact, shield the ball, change direction sharply, and go again, a stop-start, unpredictable way of carrying that should cause real problems for deep, well-organised Premier League back lines.
Ibrahim Mbaye is built for Iraola’s style
New head coach Andoni Iraola‘s football is built on intensity, vertical transitions, and wingers who can receive the ball in behind rather than always waiting to feet. Mbaye’s numbers suggest he already does a lot of this instinctively, he’s frequently found making progressive runs and getting on the end of passes played beyond the defensive line, the kind of movement that turns defensive pressure into quick counter-attacking chances. That’s exactly the release valve Iraola will want on the flank.
Where he particularly stands out is around the byline and inside the box, where the bulk of his chance creation comes from smart cutbacks rather than crosses whipped in from deep. That should suit a Liverpool front line built around genuine number nines in Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike both thrive on pull-backs into the six-yard box rather than aerial crosses, and a right winger who can consistently find that low, cut-back pass would give either of them (or both, played together) a direct route to goal.
His own end product is still raw. He shoots a lot, including from distance, and hits the ball cleanly, but accuracy and composure in front of goal need work, the kind of thing that tends to come with age and repetition rather than being a fundamental flaw.
Author Opinion
No one is pitching Mbaye as a like-for-like Salah replacement, and it would be unfair to expect that from an 18-year-old. But he fits the broader pattern of Liverpool’s rebuilt front line: quick, direct dribblers who can play with their back to goal or run in behind, alongside Munoz and Ngumoha, with Frimpong offering overlapping width from right-back behind him. There’s also a smart financial and squad-planning angle: as an Under-21 player, Ibrahim Mbaye wouldn’t need to occupy one of Liverpool’s non-homegrown squad slots, and he’d become a homegrown player himself in a few years’ time, good business on top of good football.
At around €40-50m for a teenager already trusted at PSG and starring at a World Cup, this looks like exactly the kind of forward-thinking swoop Liverpool’s recruitment team has built a reputation on. If the deal gets done, Anfield may be about to find its new right-wing project.
