Liverpool moved to revamp their midfield during the summer of 2023, but were not able to sign every player that they had wanted.

Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch were standout additions, but the Reds were left frustrated in their attempts to buy a natural defensive midfielder, with Romeo Lavia and Moises Caicedo turning them down to join Chelsea.

Liverpool offered Andre life-changing money

Without Lavia or Caicedo to count on, Andre had looked like an ideal addition for Jurgen Klopp. A feisty player who is strong in the tackle, Liverpool are arguably still searching for someone like the Brazilian to plug the gap left by Fabinho.

But despite the big offer on the table from Liverpool – both in terms of wage and transfer fee – player and club chose in tandem to turn the Reds down. As Andre has now told former Inter Milan midfielder Felipe Melo, Liverpool were offering £30m, and had given the then 22-year-old the chance for an incredible new life on Merseyside.

“What exactly happened in that year, 2023 started and some proposals arrived of 15, 17 million [Euros],” he said. “We chose to renew the contract at the start of 2023 and I gave my word, we agreed that if I were to leave, it would only be at the end of 2023, after the Copa Libertadores.

“But in the middle of all that, from January to August, I was called up [for the Brazil national team], our team was playing very well, and we didn’t expect Liverpool to come in with an offer like that.

“It really was an irresistible offer, because it was £30 million. And the personal offer they made me was something else, it wasn’t even close to what I was earning at Fluminense. It was the kind of offer that could change your life.”

“I spoke a lot with [Fernando] Diniz. You know very well what Diniz is like, I told him, ‘look, I’m only going to leave if the club as we agreed. I’ll only leave if the club [Fluminense] comes to me and puts its foot down: ‘No, we have to sell you because of financial reasons and everything else.” But everyone inside the club was very confident that we were going to go all the way in the Copa Libertadores, so I said I’ll only leave if the club say it’s impossible for me to stay.”

Determined to win South America’s version of the Champions League, Fluminense did no such thing, and with Liverpool unwilling to hang around, Andre passed up the chance of a lifetime.

“In football we have to give an answer in one day, because, imagine, a big club like Liverpool isn’t going to wait,” he said. “And there, [Fluminense president] Mario [Bittencourt] turned down the offer, and thank God at the end of the year, God blessed us with this title.”

Though it worked out well for Fluminense and they won their trophy and eventually sold Andre for around £21m in the summer of 2024, the player himself must wonder what might have been. He fared well enough in the Premier League with Wolves, and it is admirable that he decided to renew his contract and stay with the Molineux side in the second division, but surely a move to Liverpool was a better choice. Maybe he banked on them coming back in, but the Reds walked away and unless something bizarre happens, they will not be giving Andre a second chance.