Bradley Barcola set to wear bizarre unused shirt number at Liverpool as £120m star reveals why he’ll ‘never let it go’

BRADLEY BARCOLA is set to take up an unusual shirt number if he completes his move to Liverpool. The Paris Saint-Germain winger has been a key target of Andoni Iraola‘s Reds this window. Bradley Barcola is likely to take up a surprising number at Liverpool Credit: Getty The PSG winger is arriving on a £115 million deal And now they have reportedly beaten Arsenal to his signature after agreeing a deal with the French champions. The north west outfit have hammered out an agreement worth £120million for the 23-year-old. Sign up for the Football newsletter Thank you! That fee falls just £5m shy of the Reds’ record-breaking fee paid for Alexander Isak last summer. He has plenty of options currently available at Anfield when it comes to what shirt number he plans to take up. Mohamed Salah‘s 11 stands out as a symbolic choice, with it remaining vacant since his transfer to Trabzonspor at the end of last season. The digits 13, 16, 17, 24, 26 and 27 are all also available should Barcola wish to pursue the convention of targeting the lower available numbers. Instead he is most likely to take up the 29, which he first claimed at the Parc des Princes. The number has a special but bizarre meaning to Barcola, stemming from his love for the Fifa (now EA FC) video game franchise. Most read in Sport SUN VEGAS WELCOME OFFER: GET UP TO £100 BONUS Specifically, it was the series’ “the journey” story mode, featuring fictional rising star Alex Hunter, that left a mark on the Frenchman. Barcola previously explained: “When I was younger, I used to play FIFA. In the story mode with Alex Hunter, this number became symbolic for me. “I thought to myself: ‘The day I go pro, it’ll be number 29.’ And here I am, I adopted it, and now I’ll never let it go.” Previous No29s at Anfield include Fabio Borini and Dominic Solanke, but it has been vacant since Arthur Melo left the club during the 2022/23 season. Comment now