Liverpool appointed Jorg Schmadtke as the club’s new sporting director earlier this week.
Schmadtke, 59, replaced Julian Ward, who has vacated the role after 11 years at Anfield. The German’s most recent position was at Wolfsburg, where he was sporting director until February.
And now, Schmadtke is looking to pry one of his former players away from Wolfsburg.
German outlet WAZ name defender Van de Ven as a target for the sporting director, who wants to exploit the German market in the transfer window.
Jurgen Klopp is also said to be keen on the towering centre-back, who would cost more than £35m.
Van de Ven, 22, joined Wolfsburg in the summer of 2021 for just €3.5m and remains under contract until 2027.
Should the Dutch stopper make the move to Anfield, it would likely spell the end of Joe Gomez’s time there as Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate and Joel Matip are all already ahead of him in the defensive pecking order.
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