Lucca Brughmans to Liverpool
Reds sign teenage keeper, loan him back

1. 2 Sept
   Deal announced

   Liverpool officially confirmed the signing on transfer deadline day, with Brughmans immediately loaned back to Genk for the season.

Liverpool have agreed a deal worth up to £30m for Belgium Under-19 captain Lucca Brughmans, though the 18-year-old goalkeeper will spend one more season on loan at Genk before moving to Anfield.

Liverpool have completed the signing of goalkeeper Lucca Brughmans from Belgian side Genk in a deal that could be worth up to £30m (around $41m) including add-ons. Reports put the initial fee at roughly £28.3m ($38.3m), with a further £1.7m ($2.3m) available depending on performance-related add-ons. The 18-year-old has signed a six-year contract at Anfield, confirmed in an official announcement from the club at their AXA Training Centre. There's a twist to the move, though: rather than joining up with Arne Slot's squad straight away, Brughmans will spend the 2026-27 season back on loan at Genk, continuing his development before officially arriving on Merseyside in the summer of 2027.

The move is long-term planning rather than an instant upgrade in goal. Alisson Becker turns 34 in October and is entering the final year of his contract, while Giorgi Mamardashvili, signed from Valencia in 2024 as the club's long-term successor to the Brazilian, has yet to fully convince Liverpool's supporters. Brughmans is regarded at Anfield as a serious option to eventually take over the number one shirt, and the club moved to get a deal done this summer having beaten off competition from both Real Madrid and Arsenal for his signature. A clear route into regular first-team football is understood to have been the key factor in persuading him to choose Liverpool.

For Genk, it's the eventual loss of a goalkeeper who has come through their own academy and only recently forced his way into the first team. Brughmans made 32 appearances for the club's reserve side before earning his senior debut in April 2026, then held on to the jersey for the rest of that campaign. He has kept his place this season too, starting each of Genk's league matches so far. The Belgian club do at least retain him on loan for another year, which softens the blow: he continues playing regular first-team football in Belgium's top flight while Liverpool wait to bring him to Anfield.

Brughmans has long looked the part. Standing at 6ft 7in, he has captained Belgium at every age group he has represented, leading the country's Under-17s to both the European Championship and the World Cup in 2025, and he currently captains the Under-19s. He has named Thibaut Courtois, Belgium's long-serving number one, as his boyhood idol - a comparison that will only intensify if his rapid rise continues. It's that combination of size, leadership and pedigree that persuaded Liverpool to move early, well before he has played a single senior match outside Belgium.

Liverpool's approach reflects a familiar model for developing young goalkeepers: sign the talent early, let him keep playing regularly at a level he can dominate, then bring him in once he's ready to compete rather than sit on the bench. By loaning Brughmans back to Genk, the club get another season of watching him face senior opposition before he has to adapt to English football and compete with Mamardashvili, or whoever else is Liverpool's understudy by 2027. It's a bet on potential rather than an immediate solution to any current problem between the posts.

• Announced by the clubs100

A sourcing score, not a chance of completion: it grades how solid the reporting behind the move is. The stage and the evidence come from the sources listed below; the arithmetic is fixed in code, the same for every deal.

• Liverpool agree deal to sign goalkeeper Lucca Brughmans
• Liverpool complete £30 million deal for goalkeeper Lucca Brughmans - ESPN
• Liverpool Confirm $38 Million Goalkeeper Signing—But There's a Catch - SI
• Liverpool: FSG fend off Arsenal AND Real Madrid to seal deadline day signing - Football365
• Liverpool to tie up £30m deal for goalkeeper giant with decision made on Mamardashvili exit - TeamTalk