LIVERPOOL KOP A £50M DIAZ BARGAIN

Liverpool will continue to play hardball with Mo Salah over the Egyptian’s demands for £400,000-aweek to sign a new deal.

His contract expires at the end of next season.

It is understood that Liverpool were ready to wait until the end of the season to make a move for Diaz, when the future of Salah would be clearer.

But Ward, who has replaced Michael Edwards as the club’s sporting director, moved swiftly after Tottenham hit Porto with an offer last week.

Klopp had made Diaz his No.1 summer target after keeping close tabs on his mercurial rise for Porto and Colombia.

Manchester United boss Ralf Rangnick also coveted the winger, who finished as joint top-scorer at last summer’s Copa America alongside Lionel Messi.

But Diaz spoke to former United and Chelsea striker Radamel Falcao and ex-everton winger James Rodriguez about his next move – and both said, join Liverpool.

He started his career with Barranquilla FC before moving to Junior de Barranquilla in 2017. Two years later, Porto swooped by signing Diaz on a five-year contract after agreeing to pay the Primera A division club £6m for 80 percent of his economic rights.

The Portuguese club paid another £1.48m in transfer costs.

Porto’s owners SAD opened talks about the remaining 20 percent of Diaz’s rights in November but didn’t have the cash to proceed with a deal.

Sources at Anfield say they have only dealt with Porto, Diaz and advisers and that the Portuguese club will be compensating Junior de Barranquilla for their stake in the player.

Porto were warned by UEFA in December they were facing a three-year ban from European competition if they failed to pay around £4.2m in transfer debts.

That prompted the club to look towards cashing in on Diaz, while the player is on international duty.

He played as Colombia lost 1-0 to Peru in Barranquilla on Friday night to slip to sixth in the South American World Cup qualifying table.