Liverpool 'target' shuns AFC Bournemouth interest - will wait for 'prestigious' move

Liverpool target Dean Huijsen has reportedly rejected a potential move to AFC Bournemouth, according to the latest reports.

The 19-year-old centre-back has entered the news in the last few days, originally being reported as a target for Liverpool amid a mystery bid from a Premier League club. It’s said that Juventus wanted a fee in the region of £25m to part ways with their youngster.

Then, across the last few days, there have been developments. Most notably that Bournemouth and Stuttgart had made concrete moves and were locked in a transfer battle. Fabrizio Romano confirmed the news and revealed that they are hoping to sell Huijsen to help fund a move for Nice defender Jean-Clair Todibo.

Romano wrote on X: ‘Bournemouth are pushing to sign Dean Huijsen in transfer battle with Stuttgart, talks on with both clubs. Negotiations accelerating as Bournemouth are insisting to get deal done, after Stuttgart initial bid. Juve want to sell Huijsen asap to proceed with Todibo deal.’ But the news doesn’t end there.

Famed Italian journalist Gianluca Di Marzio has since revealed that Huijsen does not want to move to either of the interested parties. It’s said that he is holding out for more ‘prestigious’ opportunities and sees himself at a club operating at a higher level than the two mentioned. Di Marzio wrote: ‘Dean #Huijsen , at the moment, has doubts about the possibility of accepting the offers from Stuttgart (15 million plus bonuses offered to #Juventus ) and Bournemouth. The player is taking time to evaluate any new, more prestigious solutions.’

What is most interesting is the fact he has played just 14 times in Serie A while on loan at Roma. The towering 1.97m defender is vastly inexperienced but has impressed across the small sample size we’ve seen of his career thus far. Incidentally, his figures are somewhat warped due to his low amount of minutes but he ranks highly across the board when compared to centre-backs in Europe’s top five leagues.

For example, he ranks highly for being an attacking presence in the opposition box due to his height, measuring well across shot-creating actions, touches in the opposition box and progressive passes received. There’s also decent clearances and tackling numbers as well.

Liverpool have a full set of four senior centre-backs to work with for now but, in the future, Huijsen could be exactly the type of defender that would work well at Anfield - but he remains too inexperienced at the current time.