Liverpool have confirmed the signing of French centre-back Jérémy Jacquet from Rennes, and the club has already handed the 20-year-old the No. 5 shirt vacated by Ibrahima Konaté. The financial details have not been officially confirmed by the club; reports have the fee settled at a fixed £55m, with a further £5m in add-ons taking the total package to around £60m, and Jacquet is said to have signed a five-year contract that carries the option of an additional season.
According to reports, the deal was agreed back in February, when Jacquet passed a Liverpool medical on transfer deadline day while Chelsea had reportedly offered a matching deal. Rather than move immediately, he stayed in Ligue 1 to finish the campaign with Rennes, and Liverpool announced the signing on July 1 once the season had wrapped up. A shoulder injury cut his final months in France short, and reports say he has since recovered and was expected to join pre-season training with his new club.
What Jacquet Brings
Jacquet made 33 senior appearances for Rennes across three seasons, with 21 of those coming in 2025-26 before the injury intervened. Before that he spent roughly a year out on loan at Clermont Foot, where he played 24 games in Ligue 2 and picked up the regular first-team minutes that persuaded Liverpool’s recruitment staff he was ready for a bigger step. He has also represented France at Under-21 level, and his profile fits the mold of the young, ball-playing center-backs the club has targeted in recent windows, a trend covered in this breakdown of the Premier League’s biggest transfer fees.
Speaking to Liverpoolfc.com after the move was finalized, Jacquet did not hide his excitement. “I feel really good, the first impressions are good and I am very happy to start here,” he said. “For me it’s a big dream, it’s a big club. A club like Liverpool, it’s a big dream for me.”
Squad Role
Jacquet joins a centre-back group that already includes Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Geovanni Leoni, so he is unlikely to walk straight into a starting role. The No. 5 shirt he inherits has carried some weight at Anfield, previously worn by players such as Daniel Agger and Georginio Wijnaldum, and handing it to a 20-year-old signals the club sees him as a long-term successor in the back line rather than squad depth. The signing also arrived in the same window Liverpool were pushing to add attacking reinforcements, including a reported pursuit of PSG winger Bradley Barcola, underlining how aggressively the club has approached the 2026 summer market.
For now, Jacquet’s immediate task is simple: get up to speed physically after the injury layoff and adapt to a league that moves at a different pace than Ligue 1. How quickly he does that will determine whether Liverpool’s outlay looks like a bargain or an overpay by the time the 2026-27 season kicks into gear.
