Cody Gakpo has decided to join Manchester City, and Liverpool have opened talks with the Premier League club over terms of a possible transfer. The 27-year-old also turned down Tottenham Hotspur, leaving City as the clear destination while the two clubs try to settle on an agreement.
The move is being discussed now because Gakpo is still a major Liverpool forward and, only on Saturday, he started and set up a goal in the 2-2 draw with Nottingham Forest. That came after The Athletic reported on August 24 that Manchester City were interested, a development that has since sharpened into active talks.
City’s interest has come against a backdrop of churn in their forward line. Savinho and Omar Marmoush have departed to Tottenham this summer, and City have already agreed a €40m deal to sign Allan Elias from Palmeiras. Gakpo’s name has therefore moved quickly from speculation to a live negotiation, with Liverpool now having to weigh whether to keep a player who only signed a new five-year contract in August 2025.
That new deal makes the situation harder for Liverpool to manage. Gakpo was a central part of their 2024-25 Premier League title-winning season, scoring 18 goals and adding seven assists in 49 appearances, and he has 50 goals and 23 assists in 180 games for the club overall. He also scored three times in four appearances at this summer’s World Cup, underlining why a move now would be a significant shift in Liverpool’s plans.
Yet the form curve has not been perfectly smooth. Gakpo has scored only three times in the league since the turn of the year during the 2025-26 season, even though he has continued to feature regularly. Earlier this week, Andoni Iraola said he could not guarantee anything about Gakpo’s future, a line that now looks less like caution and more like a sign that the situation was already moving behind the scenes.
Liverpool signed Gakpo from PSV Eindhoven in December 2022 in a deal worth an initial £37million, rising to £44m with add-ons, and the club have since watched him develop into one of their most productive forwards. His decision to leave after renewing only months ago leaves the only real question that matters now: whether Liverpool and Manchester City can turn interest into an agreement before the story moves from talks to a formal transfer.
