How Bradley Barcola’s Family Carried Him From Lyon’s Reserves to Liverpool

Bradley Barcola was undergoing his medical with Liverpool on Sunday, the final step in a £123m move from Paris Saint-Germain that will make him the second most expensive signing in the club’s history behind Alexander Isak. It is a long way from the Lyon reserves, where three years ago Barcola’s career had stalled so badly that a move to Swiss club St Gallen was under discussion just to get him regular football.

What changed his path was not entirely his own doing. Lyon’s fans had turned on forward Karl Toko Ekambi amid a poor run of form, and the relationship fractured completely when Toko Ekambi stormed down the tunnel and kicked a rubbish bin after being substituted in a home defeat to Strasbourg. The incident was caught on camera. Toko Ekambi never played for Lyon again, and the opportunity that opened up went to Barcola.

From the Bench to the Parc des Princes

Barcola started the majority of Lyon’s remaining matches that season and scored five goals, including a winner away at champions-elect Paris Saint-Germain in April 2023. Five months later, he was a PSG player himself, signed for a reported £38.5m two weeks after Neymar’s departure to Saudi Arabia left a gap in the club’s forward line.

His first game for PSG could hardly have been more pointed: away at Lyon, where he was booed by the home supporters so soon after his move. According to Pierre-Etienne Minonzio, a football journalist at L’Equipe, PSG head coach Luis Enrique asked the then-teenage Barcola if he felt ready to play. “He said yes, came on as a substitute, and it was impressive,” Minonzio told BBC Sport.

Nicknamed the “grasshopper” for his speed, agility and slight build, Barcola went on to win three Ligue 1 titles and back-to-back Champions Leagues in three seasons at PSG. He broke into the France squad two years ago and scored three goals at this summer’s World Cup as France reached the semi-finals.

A Family That Films Every Match

Born Bradley Jean-Manuel Essolisam Addo Barcola, he has five siblings, including older brother Malcolm, 27, a goalkeeper for Ittihad Tanger in Morocco who also plays for the Togo national team. It was their mother who first pushed the family into football. “It’s rare but she’s the one who gave us passion [for the sport],” Barcola said in a 2024 interview with UEFA. She attended their matches and filmed the brothers playing, footage the family would review together in their living room at the encouragement of their father, Yves.

Malcolm has described those sessions to French newspaper Le Progres. “Every weekend, we went to the local stadium,” he said. “My father made Bradley do specific work in front of goal, and me, as a goalkeeper, he made me work too. We complemented each other well.”

Barcola joined Lyon’s academy at eight years old and made his first-team debut for the club eleven years later, part of an academy lineage that includes Karim Benzema, Alexandre Lacazette, and 2018 World Cup winners Samuel Umtiti and Corentin Tolisso, along with more recent graduates Rayan Cherki, now at Manchester City, and Chelsea full-back Malo Gusto. At 17, he scored 11 goals in 17 matches for Lyon’s under-19 side before signing his first professional contract in 2021, a moment he has described as significant for the whole family.

Leaning on Family Through Criticism

Barcola has spoken openly about turning to his parents and brother whenever things go wrong, including after he was criticised for missing chances against Newcastle in the Champions League in his first season at PSG. “My parents and I talk about everything,” he told French newspaper Le Parisien. “As soon as something goes wrong, on or off the pitch, we talk about it. I’ve got my older brother, too. When things aren’t going so well, I need to see them and get their advice. When they tell me ‘you’re messing up’, it’s because they’re right. And when they tell me I’ve played well, it’s because I have. I don’t listen to what’s said outside.”

His father Yves, asked about that period, said the family had spoken to Barcola about the criticism but did not believe it affected him deeply. “We talked to him about it, it’s the kind of thing that doesn’t affect him. That’s what he tells us, it pushes him to do more,” Yves said. “He’s never been given anything in his young career, he’s always had to earn things with his patience and qualities.”

Luis Enrique, who signed Barcola for PSG and has managed him for three seasons, described him as “a balanced person, very sensible, humble, hard-working, with great family values.” Of the criticism that followed his early struggles in Paris, the PSG coach added: “After Newcastle at the Parc, he was very criticised, unfairly, and that did not reflect reality. He was able to calmly manage the difficult moments post-Newcastle in the best possible way.”

The Iraola Factor

Liverpool’s move for Barcola has been building for weeks. Head coach Andoni Iraola confirmed the club’s interest on Thursday without naming Barcola directly, saying: “We are trying to sign in that position. We cannot talk about players that are, right now, not ours. It’s evident we are trying to improve or to fill that position because we don’t have the numbers. I hope we can have good news soon.”

Minonzio believes Iraola’s coaching style suits where Barcola is in his development. “Personally I think Liverpool is a good fit for Barcola, especially because of Iraola. He is so good at improving players and Barcola is not the finished product,” he said. “Sometimes he runs and runs and runs, and then his finishing is not always good. He has to improve and I think he will.” Minonzio compared the winger’s trajectory to that of Ousmane Dembele, another Lyon-schooled talent who took time to convert dribbling ability into end product. “It was exactly the same with Ousmane Dembele… Barcola is a bit like that in the finishing aspect of his game, but he will improve with the right manager, and I think Iraola is the right manager.”

Sylvain Ripoll, who coached Barcola at France Under-21 level in 2023, offered a simpler assessment of his personality. “He’s very endearing, always in a good mood,” Ripoll said. “He might seem a little reserved, but he has character on the pitch and in his decision-making. He brings something different to the table, all with an exceptional mindset.”

Should Sunday’s medical be completed without issue, Barcola arrives at Anfield as the statement forward signing Liverpool fans have wanted all summer, with the added benefit of freeing Cody Gakpo to leave, with both Tottenham and Manchester City interested in the Dutchman. Luis Enrique once called the decision to sign Barcola for PSG in 2023 a “gamble.” Three years and two Champions League winners’ medals later, Liverpool are about to find out whether the same gamble pays off again.

Already Proven Against English Opposition

Unlike some marquee signings arriving in the Premier League for the first time, Barcola does not lack experience against English clubs. He scored in a 4-2 Champions League win over Manchester City in January 2025 and found the net in each leg of PSG’s last-16 tie against Chelsea last season, evidence that his end product does show up on the biggest occasions, though Minonzio suggests his overall finishing remains a work in progress. He scored 13 goals in all competitions for PSG in 2025-26, a return that reflects a player who contributes heavily to build-up play and chance creation without always being the one to finish it himself.

The £123m fee also fits into a wider pattern of heavy Liverpool spending this year. Barcola’s arrival would take the club’s outlay from the summer of 2025 onward to more than £660m, following the club-record deal for Alexander Isak, £116.5m spent on Florian Wirtz, and further signings including Milos Kerkez, Hugo Ekitike, Giovanni Leoni and Jeremie Frimpong. Liverpool are also pursuing a second new winger this deadline day, with Crystal Palace’s Ismaila Sarr the current target after talks with Brighton over Yankuba Minteh stalled, Brighton having rejected two bids worth up to £60m.

Not every voice inside the game is convinced Barcola solves Liverpool’s biggest need. Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher has argued that Liverpool’s priority should be a right winger to replace Mohamed Salah, who left the club at the end of last season, rather than further reinforcing the left flank where Barcola primarily operates. “He’s a great player, there’s no doubt about that. I’d love to get Barcola at Liverpool,” Carragher said. “But he’s a left winger for me. Liverpool’s big thing that stands out like a sore thumb right now is replacing Mo Salah, a right winger.” Whether Iraola agrees, or sees Barcola’s versatility as a solution in itself, will become clear once the grasshopper nickname starts being used on Merseyside rather than in Paris. The family that filmed his earliest matches on the touchlines of Vaulx-en-Velin will, in all likelihood, soon be watching him at Anfield instead.