Liverpool Football Club have officially completed the signing of Jeremy Jacquet from Stade Rennais, bringing one of the most exciting young defenders in European football to Anfield on a five-year contract with the option of a further twelve months. The transfer, agreed in principle as far back as February, is worth an initial £55 million with performance-related add-ons that could take the total value to £60 million, a significant statement of intent from new head coach Andoni Iraola and sporting director Richard Hughes as they begin the task of reshaping Liverpool’s squad for the 2026-27 campaign.
The signing is significant for several reasons. At just 20 years old, Jacquet becomes one of the most expensive teenage defenders in Premier League history. He arrives from the Rennes academy, one of French football’s most celebrated production lines, as a France Under-21 international with a profile that has drawn comparisons in his home country to some of the finest young centre-backs the French game has produced. And he comes to a club that needs exactly what he offers: pace, composure, technical assurance, and the kind of long-term defensive leadership that Liverpool will require to rebuild at the back following the departures of Ibrahima Konate and, in the coming weeks, Joe Gomez.
The Man Behind the Signing
Jeremy Jacquet was born on 13 July 2005 in Bondy, the northern suburb of Paris that has produced a remarkable concentration of elite footballing talent over the past two decades. He came through the Rennes academy, one of the most productive youth setups in French football, and made his professional debut for the club on 13 January 2024, coming off the bench in a 2-0 victory over Nice. That debut came less than three weeks before his loan move to Clermont Foot, where he spent the remainder of the 2023-24 season before having that arrangement extended for a full further campaign in Ligue 2 in 2024-25.
The decision by Rennes to pay around £900,000 to cancel that loan early and recall Jacquet to the first team in February 2025 said everything about how highly the club regarded his development. He had not just been good at Clermont. He had been outstanding, accumulating 24 appearances and demonstrating the kind of composure and ball-playing ability that suggested the step up to top-flight regular football was not just possible but imminent. On 26 May 2025, Rennes rewarded that progress by extending his contract until 2029, an extension that in retrospect served as a protection of their asset as interest from across Europe began to intensify.
That interest was considerable and came early. Arsenal were linked with a serious approach as far back as August 2025, with reports suggesting the Gunners saw Jacquet as a priority target for their own defensive rebuild. Chelsea were also monitoring the situation closely. Liverpool, characteristically methodical in their recruitment, moved with both speed and decisiveness, agreeing a deal with Rennes on 2 February 2026, just days after the window opened, and completing a medical before publicly confirming the transfer. The swiftness of Liverpool’s move, and their willingness to commit to a fee of up to £60 million for a player who would only turn 21 in July, underlines the depth of confidence Richard Hughes and the scouting department have in what they have seen from this young Frenchman.
A Season of Promise Interrupted
The 2025-26 campaign at Rennes represented Jacquet’s real emergence as a first-team regular at the highest level. He made 21 appearances in Ligue 1, and the data from those matches points to a defender of exceptional quality and composure for his age. Among the highlights was a superb individual display in Rennes’ 2-0 victory away at Lille in January 2026, earning himself an 8.0 FotMob rating in one of the more demanding defensive assignments of the French season. His performances in a 4-1 victory over Monaco and a 1-0 win at Metz further demonstrated his ability to perform consistently across a range of opponents and intensities.
The campaign was unfortunately curtailed in February when Jacquet sustained a shoulder injury that required surgery and ruled him out for the remainder of the season. The timing of that setback was cruel, arriving at precisely the moment his form was at its most impressive and just as his move to Liverpool had been confirmed. However, both club and player have confirmed that his recovery has gone to plan. Liverpool’s medical team reports that he is fit and available for the start of pre-season, with Jacquet himself expected to report to the AXA Training Centre ahead of the American tour in late July, having completed his rehabilitation programme during the summer.
International Pedigree Beyond His Years
What makes Jacquet’s profile even more compelling is the evidence of his quality at international level. He has represented France at Under-19, Under-20 and Under-21 level, accumulating experience across multiple European competitions and demonstrating the technical and tactical maturity that the French youth system places at the centre of its development philosophy. Most significantly, Jacquet was named in the Team of the Tournament at the 2024 UEFA European Under-19 Championship, an individual accolade that confirmed his status as one of the finest young defenders in Europe at that age group, despite France ultimately losing the final to Spain. Being singled out for individual recognition in a tournament that featured the best teenage footballers on the continent is the kind of external validation that makes Liverpool’s investment look not just reasonable but genuinely shrewd.
What He Brings to Anfield
For Andoni Iraola, the arrival of Jacquet provides a solution to what was arguably the most pressing defensive problem of the summer. With Konate now at Barcelona and Gomez’s future unresolved, Liverpool entered the window needing at least one, and possibly two, quality centre-backs. Jacquet gives them a long-term answer at the position, a player who at 20 years old could realistically be the cornerstone of Liverpool’s defensive structure for the next decade.
His playing style fits naturally with the demands Iraola places on his defenders. The new Liverpool head coach built his reputation at Bournemouth on high defensive lines, aggressive pressing, and a demand for ball-playing ability from all positions including the centre-backs. Jacquet provides all three. He is comfortable in possession under pressure, reads the game with a maturity that belies his age, and has the physical attributes, standing at 6ft 2in and commanding in the air, to handle the demands of Premier League football at the highest level. He will be competing for a starting berth alongside Virgil van Dijk, and the prospect of that partnership developing over the coming seasons is one that will excite Liverpool supporters enormously.
The Man Himself: Grounded, Excited, and Ready
In his first words as a Liverpool player, Jacquet combined genuine emotion with a composed assurance that reflects his character as much as his playing style. “I feel really good, the first impressions are good and I am very happy to start here,” he told Liverpool’s official website. “I am very happy. When I see the facilities, I can see myself there. I feel good here and I am very excited to get started. For me it is a big dream. A club like Liverpool, it is a big dream for me.”
Those words carry the unmistakable authenticity of a young man who has worked exceptionally hard to reach this moment and who understands exactly what it means. He grew up in Bondy, the same working-class northern Paris suburb that produced Kylian Mbappe and Riyad Mahrez, among others. He took a patient, methodical path to the top, earning his place in senior football through a loan spell in the second division before forcing his way into Rennes’ first team. Nothing about his journey has been handed to him, and that background tends to produce players who are hungry, resilient, and deeply motivated to prove themselves at the very highest level.
Jacquet’s squad number will be confirmed in due course. His Anfield journey, however, has already begun. At 20 years old, with the World Cup watching public now discovering what Liverpool already knew, the future for Jeremy Jacquet is extraordinarily bright.
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The Liverpool FC Times Team
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