Barcelona Join Liverpool in Race to Sign €70m-Rated Bundesliga Starlet Julian Brandt

Barcelona are among the suitors to sign Bayer Leverkusen star Julian Brand and have reportedly earmarked the starlet as a possible successor to Luis Suarez.

The Uruguayan is into his fourth season at the Nou Camp now, and it is the first time question marks have ever been raised over his future.

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He has scored just twice in eight appearances so far, which is a relatively poor return given his statistics of previous seasons, while he is also now the wrong side of 30. 

The situation has encouraged Barça to think about potential replacements, and as reported by Marca (via TEAMtalk), 22-year-old attacker Brandt could be one such option for the Catalan giants.

Brandt, now rated at around €70m, is one of the most highly-rated youngsters in Germany, and has also been courted by Liverpool in the past, who are reported to have been unsuccessful with a £25m at the start of the summer.

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At the time he told Kicker of his desire to remain in the Bundesliga: "My gut feeling and my head are telling me the time to move has not arrived yet. I have to straighten things out in Leverkusen.

"Of course there are players who say a year without European football before the World Cup is good reason to move. But if you move to a bigger club a year before the World Cup, you risk taking time at first to settle which possibly means playing fewer games."

It remains to be seen whether Liverpool will come back in for Brandt given the recent signing of Mohamed Salah. Meanwhile any move from Barça could in fact be good news for the Reds, as may rule out a return for Philippe Coutinho instead.