Liverpool’s Sepp van den Berg made 33 league appearances during his loan spell at 1. FSV Mainz 05 last season.
At the start of this month, Sky Deutschland journalist Florian Plettenberg stated the 22-year-old wants to leave the Reds permanently and is waiting for their green light.
On June 16th, Bild reported Mainz are keen on buying the Liverpool defender in the summer window. It was also stated the negotiations have stalled because sorting out his future isn’t an immediate priority for Reds director Richard Hughes.
Mainz sporting director Christian Heidel has told Sky Deutschland, relayed by Fussball Transfers, that Liverpool haven’t made a decision on the centre-back yet.
Arne Slot will be without Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konaté and Joe Gomez at the start of pre-season as the centre-back trio are representing their countries at the Euros. Therefore, the new Liverpool manager wants to have Van den Berg in training.
When Sky asked Heidel to predict when the negotiations with the Merseyside club could move forward, he said: “That’s difficult, I can’t. We are waiting. We have been in contact with Liverpool several times.
“When Liverpool start training, there’s no central defender there because they’re all away at the European championship and Copa América and then they want to have a look and take their time.”
Van den Berg’s contract lasts until 2026, but he has publicly expressed his desire to leave Liverpool this summer. The German club’s official says his intention is to return to Mainz.
“Sepp has made his position clear, he would love to stay at Mainz. We would love to keep him, now Liverpool have to play along. We’re giving Liverpool time and we’re taking our time,” Heidel explained.
