Liverpool have reached an agreement in principle for French forward Hugo Ekitike, talkSPORT understands.

The Reds have agreed to pay an initial £69m with an additional £10m in add-ons, which are both team and player related.

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Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes and Frankfurt counterpart Markus Krosche have been in talks over the weekend to get the deal done.

It’s understood that Ekitike has already agreed personal terms with the Merseyside outfit on a six-year contract.

News of Liverpool’s breakthrough will come as a blow to Newcastle, who had a £70m-guaranteed offer rejected, but it did not have the same add-ons their Premier League rivals submitted.

Ekitike is due to travel to the UK on Tuesday to undergo a medical before flying out to Asia to join their pre-season tour.

At the time of Newcastle’s offer, talkSPORT understood Frankfurt executives were reluctant to budge from their previous €100m (£87m) valuation for the forward who, up until last season, had failed to live up to high expectations.

Blasting onto the scene with boyhood club Reims in 2021, Ekitike was pencilled in as a future France star, but didn’t live up to the hype with a failed move to Paris Saint-Germain coming with very little game time.

But after a season in which he netted 22 times in all competitions for Frankfurt, he found himself on Liverpool and Newcastle’s radar.

The Reds are on the lookout for a new striker with Darwin Nunez on the market and valued at £59m.

As a prelude to their Ekitike interest, Liverpool indicated to Newcastle that they would be willing to pay a British record £120m for star striker Alexander Isak.

The Magpies, though, value the player at £150m.

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With Newcastle refusing to budge, Liverpool have instead turned to Ekitike where they are hoping to wrap up a deal imminently.

Should Ekitike join Liverpool as expected, it would take their summer spending spree to over £250m.

Arne Slot’s side responded to the loss of Trent Alexander-Arnold to Real Madrid by bringing in a new right-back in Jeremie Frimpong for £29.5m.

Liverpool then added his former Bayer Leverkusen teammate Florian Wirtz for a British record £116m.

Milos Kerkez was next through the door for £40m.

And it remains to be seen if Liverpool will make a move to bring in Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi after selling academy product Jarell Quansah to Leverkusen.

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