Liverpool transfer news: One of the fastest players at the World Cup is coming to Reds

One of the fastest players at the World Cup could be heading to Liverpool this summer.

Missing out on Yan Diomande is a significant setback for Liverpool's recruitment team.

The 19-year-old wasn't just another name on the club's shortlist - he appeared to fit almost every requirement Liverpool are looking for as they begin planning for life after Mohamed Salah.

Young, highly productive and with enormous room for development, Diomande looked like one of the standout attacking prospects on the market.

His decision to join Paris Saint-Germain forces Liverpool back to the drawing board.

Bradley Barcola is an obvious alternative, but whether PSG would even consider selling him is another question entirely. Even if he were available, he doesn't necessarily address Liverpool's biggest long-term need.

Although Barcola has featured on the right, he is at his best operating from the left, where Liverpool already have Cody Gakpo and one of the academy's brightest talents in Rio Ngumoha. If anything, his profile complements that side of the attack rather than offering a long-term successor to Salah.

That is what makes Diomande's decision so frustrating from Liverpool's perspective.

Players with his combination of age, output and potential are exceptionally rare, particularly on the right wing.

At just 19, he is already producing numbers that compare favourably with many of Europe's best young attackers, suggesting he has the foundations to develop into one of the game's elite forwards.

There also appeared to be a genuine connection between Diomande and Liverpool. From the outside, he looked like a player who admired the club and shared its ambition to develop into one of the world's very best.

Ultimately, though, PSG's project proved more persuasive. Given everything Luis Enrique has built in Paris, that decision is understandable.

For Liverpool, however, the challenge remains the same: finding a player capable of leading the club into the post-Salah era has just become considerably more difficult.

Liverpool are going to have to replace Salah in the aggregate and be a lot wiser with their decision making.

They are also going to have to think outside the box. With the market so inflated, and Bradley Barcola's asking price continuing to increase, there is room for the Reds to look at alternative markets where there may be more value to be had.

And this search could see Liverpool pursuing a move for a winger who could be an under the radar gem.

Meet Abbosbek Fayzullaev, a player who is on Liverpool's radar, and who has been likened to Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.

Fayzullaev like Kvaratskhelia had to make his name in Russia playing for CSKA Moscow.

He is one of the brightest young prospects in the Uzbekistan national team and has recently moved to Turkey, where he is starting to catch the eye.

He's a very technical player - small in stature but with great vision and dribbling ability.

Unlike Kvaratskhelia, Fayzullaev plays best in an attacking midfield role. He has seven goal contributions in his last 12 league games for his club side in Turkey, and he's equally impressive for his country, registering five goal contributions in his last six games during qualification to the World Cup.

At the World Cup according to Zamin, an outlet in Uzbekistan, Liverpool sent scouts to the World Cup to watch the 22-year-old in action as they consider a possible move for the youngster.

Now, that move is looking more likely to happen given how he performed and Diomande's rejection.

Fayzullaev scored his country's first ever World Cup goal against Colombia and also registered an assist but most impressively he was also one of the fastest players at the tournament.

According to this Reddit post, Fayzullaev had the third fastest top speed at the World Cup during the group-stages clocking in at 36km/h.

Pace is exactly what Liverpool need and given the way the window has gone, it's now looking likely that one of the fastest players at the World Cup could be heading to Anfield.