Richard Hughes willing to pay for massive £250k per week contract

Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes is prepared to sanction a near-doubling of Dominik Szoboszlai’s wages to about £250,000 a week in order to secure the Hungary captain’s long-term future at Anfield, TEAMtalk understands.

Szoboszlai, 25, arrived from RB Leipzig in 2023 and is tied to the club until 2028 on a deal worth a reported £120,000 a week. With talks over an extension ongoing, the midfielder had been linked with a future move to Real Madrid, who have long-standing interest in making him a Bernabéu recruit.

Sources close to negotiations say the player’s camp initially floated figures approaching £300,000 a week, a sum that would have placed him behind only Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah on Liverpool’s wage spectrum. Revised discussions have now settled closer to £250,000 a week, a raise Hughes is ready to approve.

Szoboszlai has featured prominently under head coach Arne Slot this season, operating in a variety of roles and emerging as the side’s standout performer during a testing title defence. Despite his influence, the playmaker’s current remuneration lags well behind Europe’s elite midfielders such as Jude Bellingham, Bruno Fernandes and Bernardo Silva.

Liverpool hierarchy believe the proposed terms strike a balance between recognising Szoboszlai’s importance and maintaining the club’s wage structure, and are increasingly confident of announcing an agreement that will ward off interest from Madrid.