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'I'm Liverpool target who was told to look up to Van Dijk - I idolized Arsenal star instead'

-Credit:MI News/NurPhoto
-Credit:MI News/NurPhoto


Some Liverpool fans are allowing themselves to get excited after Ajax defender Jorrel Hato apparently attended Liverpool's game against Ipswich on Saturday.

Several eyewitnesses claimed to have seen the 18-year-old at Anfield, with an unverified picture also circulating on social media.

Ajax did not have a game over the weekend so it's very possible that Hato used a rare weekend off to attend the Reds' comfortable 4-1 victory, which compatriot Cody Gakpo scored twice in.

Two more Dutchmen started for the Reds in Ryan Gravenberch and Virgil van Dijk, while Liverpool's head course is, of course, also Dutch.

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Hato, who can play as a center-back or as a left-back, has reportedly emerged as a target for Liverpool in 2025. TEAMtalk reports that the Reds initially planned to move for Hato during this summer's transfer window, but are now considering swooping this month instead amid increasing competition for the teenager, including from Real Madrid and Chelsea.

Ajax would be reluctant to let Hato go this month but an offer of $31.5million or more would reportedly be enough to tempt the Amsterdam club to consider a sale.

Reported sighting of Jorell Hato
The unverified picture of Hato at Anfield -Credit:X

Hato is the latest exciting prospect to come out of Ajax's famed academy, and he revealed in an interview last year that he looked up to another recent Ajax academy graduate, Arsenal's Jurrien Timber.

Timber is five years older than Hato, and the teenager wanted to follow in the Gunners defender's footsteps when he was coming through the ranks in Amsterdam.

“Coaches told me that I always needed to look up to Virgil van Dijk, but when I played in the under-18s, I always looked up to Jurrien Timber," Hato said last year.

“I played with him for six months before he left [to join Arsenal], and I learned so much from him. When I came into the first team, he was my mentor. I love his playing style, his calmness on the ball. And he is just a great defender in defending terms.”