According to reports from Manchester Evening News yesterday afternoon, Lyon chairman Jean-Michel Aulus has valued the club’s top scorer Alexandre Lacazette at over €50million.
The 23 year-old has been in sensational form over the last two campaigns, represented by his back-to-back inclusions in the Ligue 1 Team of the Year.
During 2013/14 season he netted 22 times across all competitions, but the France international has surpassed that total this term, with his 27 league goals only bettered throughout Europe’s five leading top flights by Ballon d’Or duo Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
That’s earned the prodigious poacher Ligue 1’s Player of the Year award, whilst generating interest from some of the continent’s top clubs – particularly Liverpool and Manchester United, who were both linked by The Express on Monday amid claims Lacazette plans to leave Stade Velodrome this summer.
In a bid to ward off potential suitors, however, Lyon’s chairman has placed an audacious price-tag on the 5 foot 9 forward. He told French TV channel Canal+;”Nothing is ever sure in football but we will do everything to keep Alexandre with us. €50m would not be enough, that is not the price.”
In some slightly better news for Liverpool and Manchester United, Jean-Michael Aulus went on to rule PSG out of the race for Lacazette’s signature. “I have never spoken with [the PSG president] Nasser al-Khelaifi about Alexandre Lacazette and I do not get the feeling, when I listen to Laurent Blanc, that he wants to sign him,” he added.