Borussia Dortmund hope a bidding war between Chelsea and Liverpool will still earn them a £70million fee for Christian Pulisic, despite his contract running out.
The USA winger has been monitored by both clubs and has refused to sign a new deal at Dortmund. The Bundesliga club are determined to keep him until the end of the season, by which point he will have just a year left on his current agreement.
Chelsea will consider making an offer in January in view of the deal being completed in the close season.
Liverpool, meanwhile, are understood to have cooled their interest despite being long-term admirers of the 20-year-old.
Jurgen Klopp’s side was heavily linked with Pulisic last summer but opted to move for Xherdan Shaqiri instead, believing the Swiss more likely to accept the need to fight his way into a team already packed with quality attacking options.
Pulisic - who spent a year in England aged 7, playing for Brackley Town near Oxford - admitted to Standard Sport earlier this month that he would be open to a move to the Premier League in the future.
"England, the Premier League, is a League where lots of kids dream of playing so there is no reason why maybe one day I won’t play here," he said.
"We are having a great year at Dortmund and I am enjoying every moment of that. Then when the time comes for me to talk in the breaks about my future, then that’s when those things happen.
"Reading these articles [about me], I tend to stay away from that stuff. I know it is going to be there but it is not my priority."
