Fábio Carvalho joins Brentford – Liverpool make significant transfer profit

Now official 

Fábio Carvalho has left Liverpool on a permanent transfer. After two consecutive loans, the attacking midfielder has joined Premier League competitor Brentford. Both clubs confirmed the deal on Monday. Liverpool will earn an initial €23.4 million and up to €32m, including bonus payments. The deal will also include a sell-on clause worth an additional 17.5%. Liverpool, in the meantime, will have to pay 20% or around €3.5m, to Carvalho’s former club, Fulham, from where they signed the Portuguese midfielder in 2022. 

It is only Brentford’s second major transfer of the summer transfer window. The club previously signed Igor Thiago from Brugge in a deal worth €33m. That transfer remains the most expensive transfer in club history, but Carvalho is the second most expensive U21 player in club history, behind only Kevin Schade. But Carvalho will already turn 22 on August 30. 

Born in Portugal, Carvalho moved to England when he was 11 and broke through at Fulham, where he was signed by Liverpool in a deal worth €9.4m in the summer of 2022. But Carvalho never managed to break into Liverpool’s first team and struggled while on loan at Bundesliga side RB Leipzig. Indeed, while Xavi Simons burst onto the scene, Carvalho managed just 158 minutes across nine Bundesliga games. While on loan at Leipzig, Carvalho also criticized Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp in an interview with Transfermarkt. I don’t really speak to him, to be fair,” Carvalho said when asked whether Jürgen Klopp gave him any advice about Leipzig. “He didn’t really give me any advice. I just had to learn as I go.” 

Perhaps the move to Leipzig was a step to far for Carvalho? Liverpool certainly thought so. They recalled the player in the winter of 2024 and loaned Carvalho to Championship side Hull City instead. At Hull, Carvalho’s playing time improved. The playmaker, in fact, managed nine goals and two assists in 20 Championship games with the club. Furthermore, Carvalho also stabilized his market value at €14m. It was during that time that Brentford got convinced that they could get the best out of the attacking midfielder. The move also paid off for Liverpool as they managed to sell Carvalho with a significant transfer profit. 

“Fábio is a player with a lot of qualities. He can play in all of the front three or four positions in a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1,” Brentford manager Thomas Frank said. “His best position is probably as a no.10 or coming in from the left.”Offensively, he has great abilities on the ball: he can go past players, slide a pass, create chances and get on the end of chances. He’s a type of player that we don’t have many of in the squad so he will add that something extra for us. His ability and mentality to work hard in the pressure is also very, very good. That’s along with him ticking all the boxes from a cultural perspective and being the right character. So, we’re very pleased to see him come in and push the team forward.”