Lille President Gerard Lopez has said that Liverpool were in talks to sign the club’s talisman Nicolas Pepe this summer.

Pepe had a terrific 18/19 season with Lille, netting 23 goals and 12 assists in 41 appearances across all competitions. His performances helped Lille finish second in Ligue 1 and book their place in the Champions League for the first time since the 2011-12 season.

Pepe’s performances also earned him a place in the Ligue 1 Team of the Season.

The Ivorian winger’s performances for Lille attracted interest from several clubs like Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United among others. Lille are reportedly demanding £70 million for Pepe.

Lille President Gerard Lopez has confirmed that Liverpool were in talks with Pepe’s representatives over a transfer.

Lopez said, “I know there have been discussions with the player, not with us as a club.

Liverpool have players in those positions and I read that maybe there were players who could leave, or not.

I am not particularly focused on Liverpool. But it is true that there have been discussions with agents.”

Lopez also said that Lille had offers from two other clubs before Pepe departed to Egypt with his national team for the African Cup of Nations. He said, “We had two offers before the Africaa Cup of Nations. We’ll see after that, my position was to see if we could not do something before it, we had two proposals before it, I had two clubs.”

There were reports that Liverpool were no longer interested in Pepe since they didn’t want to pay £70 million for someone who would be on the bench.

Whether Pepe will stay at Lille next season or not next season is a mystery but one thing’s for sure and that is Lille will receive several offers to sign the winger.

Pepe is currently at the African Cup of Nations with his national team Ivory Coast. He started Ivory Coast’s first two group games against South Africa and Morocco, playing the entirety of both matches. However, he sat out Ivory Coast’s final group game against Namibia

It will be interesting to see whether Ivory Coast manager Ibrahim Kamara will start Pepe in Ivory Coast’s round of 16 clash against Mali on Monday.

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