The 10 most expensive defenders Liverpool have ever signed

Liverpool once set a new world record for a transfer fee paid for a defender and have splashed the cash on their backline again in 2025.

Two new full-backs have arrived at Anfield this summer and there might still be room for another centre-back to be added into the mix, with TEAMtalk able to confirm Marc Guehi from Crystal Palace has become a primary target.

Liverpool have spent big on defenders in the past. And with the obvious exception of one overwhelming success, their record when dipping into the transfer market for rear-guard reinforcements is mixed.

Here are the 10 most expensive defensive signings Liverpool have ever made.

10. Kostas Tsimikas

Signed from: Olympiacos

Year: 2020

Transfer fee: £11.75m

After winning the Premier League title in 2019-20, Liverpool’s first new signing as the reigning champions was Kostas Tsimikas.

The left-back joined from Olympiacos in his native Greece, where he had begun his career and won three league titles.

For Liverpool, he has served for five years as the backup to Andy Robertson, who actually cost less (£8m rising to £10m) to sign.

Still, Tsimikas has been able to make 115 appearances for Liverpool, including sub appearances in the 2022 FA Cup final and 2024 EFL Cup final, which they won.

9. Alberto Moreno

Signed from: Sevilla

Year: 2012

Transfer fee: £12m

When Liverpool paid £12 million to sign a 22-year-old Alberto Moreno from Sevilla in August 2012, the Spain international was regarded as one of the most exciting young defenders in Europe.

Moreno went on to play 141 games for the Reds, scoring three goals and providing 11 assists. He remained a regular starter for the club in Jurgen Klopp’s first season at the Anfield helm and started the 2016 Europa League final.

But the attack-minded left-back was criticised for his performance in a 3-1 defeat to Sevilla in that game and he lost his place the next term to converted midfielder James Milner.

After Robertson was signed from Hull City in 2017, Moreno was seldom considered for selection on the left side of the Liverpool backline. He remained on Merseyside until the summer of 2019, when he joined Villarreal on a free transfer after being released.

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8. Nathaniel Clyne

Signed from: Southampton

Year: 2015

Transfer fee: £12.5m

In one of a succession of deals that saw Liverpool sign players – often at significant expense – from Southampton, right-back Nathaniel Clyne moved to Anfield in a £12.5 million deal in 2015.

An agile and athletic full-back with an impressive engine to traverse the touchline, Clyne had impressed in three top-flight seasons with the Saints after a switch from boyhood club Crystal Palace.

The England international was a regular starter for the Reds in his first two seasons with the club, appearing in all but six of Liverpool’s Premier League fixtures over that period. But then his career became blighted by injuries and he was never able to rediscover his best form.

After a loan spell with Bournemouth, Clyne returned to Palace as a free agent in the summer of 2020.

7. Glen Johnson

Signed from: Portsmouth

Year: 2009

Transfer fee: £17.5m

When Glen Johnson arrived at Liverpool in a £17.5 million move from Portsmouth in the summer of 2009, it was the England full-back’s second opportunity with one of the Premier League’s ‘Big Six’ clubs.

Six years earlier, as a teenager, the former West Ham standout was the first Chelsea signing of the Roman Abramovich era. He ultimately made little impact at Stamford Bridge, but he starred across three seasons with Pompey, impressing with his dynamism in attack and quality of delivery from wide.

Chelsea tried to re-sign Johnson from Portsmouth, but Liverpool won the race for the highly rated England player. In six seasons with the Reds, he played 200 games, scoring nine goals and providing 16 assists.

6. Mamadou Sakho

Signed from: Paris Saint-Germain

Year: 2013

Transfer fee: £18m

Liverpool’s £18 million signing of Mamadou Sakho in 2013 was an ambitious move that saw the Reds secure a gifted centre-back who was a senior France international and previously been regarded as one of the best young defenders in Europe after breaking through with Paris Saint-Germain.

And at times, Sakho delivered on the promise of his big-money arrival, demonstrating athleticism, power and technical ability.

But Sakho was ultimately a frustrating figure, with injuries, poor form and fallouts negatively colouring his time at Anfield. His Reds stay came to an end in January 2017 when he was sold to Crystal Palace after Klopp had demoted him to the reserves for consistent poor timekeeping.

Liverpool did, however, turn a profit on Sakho, as Palace paid £26 million to make his initial loan move permanent.

5. Dejan Lovren 

Signed from: Southampton

Year: 2014

Transfer fee: £20m

Another expensive purchase from Southampton, Liverpool paid £20 million to sign Dejan Lovren in July 2014, setting a record as the club’s most expensive defender that would last until they signed another Saints centre-back three and a half years later.

Injuries and high-profile errors saw Lovren slide down the Anfield pecking order over the final years of his six seasons with the club, but he was still a member of the squad that won a sixth European Cup in 2019 and a first top-flight title in three decades a year later.

Lovren left to join Zenit Saint Petersburg in 2020 after 185 appearances and eight goals for Liverpool.

4. Jeremie Frimpong

Signed from: Bayer Leverkusen

Year: 2025

Transfer fee: £29.5m

The painstaking loss of Trent Alexander-Arnold to Real Madrid as the end of his contract approached in 2025 forced Liverpool into the market for a replacement at right-back.

Mercifully, they didn’t lose Alexander-Arnold for free as they feared, since Madrid paid £8.4m to get him in before the Club World Cup, but it was still a figure well below his market value.

Liverpool had to spend a bigger fee to bring in a reinforcement, but the £29.5m price for Jeremie Frimpong – a Bundesliga champion with Bayer Leverkusen in 2023-24 – looks more than reasonable.

It was the value of the Dutchman’s release clause, which recently-crowned champions Liverpool were glad to trigger to make the attack-minded wing-back their first new signing of the summer 2025 transfer window.

3. Ibrahima Konate

Signed from: RB Leipzig

Year: 2021

Transfer fee: £36m

French centre-back Ibrahima Konate became the second most-expensive centre-back in Liverpool’s history when he moved to Merseyside from RB Leipzig in a £36 million deal in 2021.

Considered the total package in terms of the skills desired of a modern centre-back, Konate boasts pace, athleticism, size, strength and quality on the ball, all of which he has displayed in great measure since joining the Reds.

Injuries have held back the 26-year-old France international in his Liverpool career to date, though, and he is now entering the final year of his contract on Merseyside.

2. Milos Kerkez

Signed from: Bournemouth

Year: 2025

Transfer fee: £40m

Seemingly arriving at the end of an era in the left-back department, Liverpool decided it was time to find a long-term successor for Robertson after their 2025 title win.

The target they were fixated on all along, as TEAMtalk reported since September 2024, was Milos Kerkez at Bournemouth.

Richard Hughes had signed him before in his previous job and succeeded in luring him to Liverpool as well, at a price making him their most expensive ever full-back.

1. Virgil van Dijk – £75 million

When Liverpool signed Virgil van Dijk from Southampton for £75 million midway through the 2018-19 season, they brought to an end an arduous transfer saga that had seen the Saints rebuff their initial approach and accuse them of improper conduct.

The fee the Reds forked out for the Dutchman was also a world-record for a defender, a sum so sizeable as to put off rival interest from Manchester City.

But Van Dijk has proven well worth the wait, the effort and the money across seven and a half seasons at Anfield. Firmly established as one of the best defenders of his generation, the 33-year-old has appeared 319 times for Liverpool, scoring 28 goals and exerting an enormous influence over Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup and EFL Cup triumphs.

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