Philippe Coutinho’s agent claims the Brazil international is keen on a return to the Premier League, while refusing to rule out the possibility of his client remaining with current loan club Bayern Munich.
Coutinho was shipped out to Bavaria after just one full season at Barcelona, and with the Catalan giants lining up a summer of heavy spending, the 27-year-old may need to be sold to fund their transfer activity.
However, his future has been left in limbo after failing to set the world alight at Bayern, who have Bayer Leverkusen’s Kai Havertz and Manchester City’s Leroy Sané higher up on their shopping list.
Coutinho’s agent Kia Joorabchian told Sky Sports: “He has a desire to come back to the Premier League at some point.
“It may not happen this year, it may happen this year, we don’t know. We really have not discussed anything for now.”
90min revealed in April that Liverpool still have first refusal on a Coutinho, having sold him to Barcelona in 2018 in a deal worth up to €140m.
However, the Reds have little intention to bring their former player back to Anfield, with big-money signings not in the pipeline this coming transfer window.
Bayern Munich did have the option to make Coutinho’s move to the Allianz Arena permanent for €120m at the end of the season, but this option has since expired.
However, Joorabchian insists a return to Bayern is not off the table.
“It’s up to Bayern Munich whether or not they want to extend the loan,” he added.
“It’s purely Bayern’s decision, we have a will to stay, and we will see about next season when we get back to this ‘new normal’. We’ve had some conversations with Bayern about next season [already].”
Joorabchian’s stance is in keeping with that of Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. Despite the club opting not to activate their purchase clause for Coutinho, he said: “We’re going to plan our squad for next season and we’ll see if he still has a role to play with us or not.”
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