In signing Wataru Endo, Liverpool likely won’t see anything in terms of resale value.
The addition of the 30-year-old Japan captain on a four-year deal on Friday saw the Reds shell out a guaranteed £16.25m to German Bundesliga side VfB Stuttgart, representing the biggest fee that Reds owners Fenway Sports Group have spent on a 30-plus player since acquiring the club back in 2010.
As with their ownership of the Boston Red Sox, FSG like to sign players who have a considerable ceiling left both competitively and in terms of their transfer value. A look at some of the deals to have taken place during their ownership of the Reds, where Philippe Coutinho was signed for £8m as a 20-year-old and sold for £142m, where Andrew Robertson joined for £10m from relegated Hull City as a 23-year-old before going on to hold a market value of some £80m at the peak of his powers, and where Mohamed Salah’s £34.3m signing in 2017 would go on to produce a player valued three times that, and you can see why FSG have been keen on the model.
But the signing of Endo, as Reds boss Jurgen Klopp told the assembled media earlier this week, was one that he had long sought, even if the profile of the Japan skipper, who didn’t arrive in European football until signing for Belgian side Sint-Truidense in 2020, didn’t exactly align with what FSG’s strategy has been for so long. In paying such a transfer fee and offering a four-year deal it is the kind of signing that has been a rarity for the Liverpool owners.
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