Milos Kerkez to Liverpool: Transfers TLDR

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Milos Kerkez has joined Liverpool from Bournemouth in a deal worth around £40million ($54m).

The Hungarian left-back, who joined Andoni Iraola's side in July 2023 from AZ in the Netherlands and made 74 appearances, has signed an five-year deal to join Arne Slot's Premier League champions.

As part of this summer's transfer coverage on The Athletic, in addition to breaking news, tactical analysis and in-depth reads, our Transfers TLDR series (you can read them all here) will bring you a quick guide to each of the key deals.

Kerkez grew up in Vrbas, Serbia -- a hometown he returns to every chance he gets, given his football career took him away at age 11, when he joined Austria's Rapid Vienna. He now represents Hungary as payback for the coaching and care he received in that country, having played for Hodmezovasarhelyi and Gyor.

A video call with iconic left-back Paolo Maldini (then Milan's sporting director) led to the Italians signing Kerkez in February 2021. A year later, he went Dutch, transferring to AZ to kick-start his career.

It worked: Bournemouth spent a reported £15.5million ($21m) on him in July 2023.

Caoimhe O'Neill

Whether he is overlapping or underlapping, Kerkez does everything with unrivalled levels of energy. Expect to see lung-busting runs from the first minute to the last from a player who started all 38 of Bournemouth's league games last season.

Don't think of him as a full-back who just wants to get forward at every opportunity, though. While Kerkez loves adding to the attack, he takes his defensive work just as seriously and will happily glue himself to an opposition winger for an entire game.

Caoimhe O'Neill

Kerkez was much more active in the attacking half last season compared to 2023-24, as the graph below shows. He formed Bournemouth's potent left-sided offensive axis, alongside centre-back Dean Huijsen (since bought by Real Madrid) and winger Antoine Semenyo.

The Hungarian's dynamism shone as he ranked sixth among Premier League full-backs in progressive carries (4.4 per 90 minutes) and was crucial to Bournemouth's high-intensity pressing.

In contrast, Liverpool left-back Andy Robertson inverted into midfield more often last season, as the next graph shows, while assisting more with build-up too.

Kerkez's arrival (along with that of Jeremie Frimpong from Bayer Leverkusen, who plays down the right) suggests Liverpool's offensive approach will evolve next season.

Kerkez is 5ft 11in (180cm) but has struggled in aerial duels, while his eagerness to win the ball can lead to him conceding fouls. But he will help Liverpool restrict opponents with his aggressive pressing, while his ball-carrying and crossing will add unpredictability to their attack.

Anantaajith Raghuraman

Kerkez has had no serious injuries across his career, though he was absent for Hungary during the November international break with a knee issue.

Before playing 98 per cent of Bournemouth's league minutes last season, Kerkez was available for 31 of their top-flight games in 2023-24, sitting out a month on either side of Christmas with an unspecified injury and three late-season matches after getting sent off.

He started 33 of the 34 Eredivisie matches for AZ in 2022-23 too, with the one he missed also being due to suspension.

Anantaajith Raghuraman

After spending an hour in the company of Kerkez in March, what struck me was his confidence. All players who play in the Premier League have to be confident, sure. But the players who make it to the very, very top have this unwavering belief that they will -- and you can see it in their eyes, hear it in their voice.

Kerkez has that sort of drive, and before I left Bournemouth I told him I would think back to the interview in years to come when he wins the Premier League and Champions League. His eyes widened and he smiled, because he believes those things will happen.

Caoimhe O'Neill

Kerkez has joined Liverpool on a five-year deal, ending in June 2030.They have paid Bournemouth £40million for the 21-year-old left-back.

Liverpool's 2024-25 accounting period ended on May 31, so from their perspective, this deal is registered within their 2025-26 financials.

The fee paid for Kerkez makes this deal the fourth-biggest player sale in Bournemouth's history, behind the departures of Dominic Solanke (Tottenham Hotspur), Huijsen (Real Madrid) and Nathan Ake (Manchester City).

All bar the Ake deal (which was only £1m more than this one) have come within the past 12 months, so the profit on all three will provide a healthy boost to Bournemouth's 2024-25 financials.

Chris Weatherspoon

Assuming agent fees of 10 per cent on the transfer and associated levies, Kerkez's signing will add £8.4milllion in amortisation costs to Liverpool's 2025-26 figures, then a further £9.1m per season in the four years from 2026-27 to 2029-30. A final £748,000 of amortisation would then fall into the opening month of their 2030-31 accounts.

Kerkez's wage at his new club is unknown but will, as ever, take the cost over his five-year contract well beyond the estimated £45.6m price of acquiring his registration.

In the case of Bournemouth's finances, Kerkez signed from AZ in July 2023 for a reported £15.5million. Based on that figure, with assumed other fees and levies accounted for on top, his value on their books at the time of this move is £10.8m -- so the deal has generated a chunky accounting profit for them.

Whether AZ, Kerkez's former side, are due a sell-on fee from the deal is unknown -- AZ did not respond to a request for comment from The Athletic. With no sell-on, Bournemouth's profit would be £29.2million but, even if a sell-on clause does exist and the proportion due to AZ was as high as 20 per cent, they'd still record around £24.8m profit on Kerkez's sale.