Bradley Barcola stretched out his arms and wheeled away in celebration. The year was 2022, and the young Frenchman was starring for Lyon at a midseason tournament in Dubai, which was staged to ensure players who weren't featuring at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar maintained their match fitness.
On this particular occasion, it was Liverpool who felt the impact of Barcola's right foot as he swept a fine effort past Adrián to help Lyon to a 3-1 victory at Al Maktoum Stadium.
For some of the Anfield hierarchy, it was their first introduction to a player who would later go on to star several times for the Paris Saint-Germain side that has tormented Liverpool in Europe in recent years. Now, after agreeing a £120 million deal that will see Barcola become the second-most expensive player in the club's history, the Reds will hope the 23-year-old can become the face of a new era on Merseyside under Andoni Iraola.
"I think for a club like us, we need wingers who can make the difference, who can be the man who can make the difference in isolation, who can attack the spaces, who can also do the defensive work that we are going to demand from them in terms of pressing or sometimes following the full backs," the Liverpool boss said this week.
"And also if they can provide numbers then it's perfect. It is difficult to find someone who can tick all the boxes, but it is what we are trying to do."
Certainly, there are few players more capable of ticking those boxes than Barcola. Pacy, intelligent and with elite pedigree, the forward has all of the ingredients to become one of the Premier League's brightest stars. But how did Barcola become one of Europe's most in-demand players? And why are Liverpool so confident he can take them to the next level?
"He wasn't someone people expected to become a superstar"
Barcola has never been the loudest voice in the dressing room. One of six children, the forward started at local club AS Buers Villeurbanne, which also helped to launch the career of Real Madrid legend Karim Benzema.
At the age of eight, Barcola joined Lyon's academy where his older brother, Malcom, was also honing his craft as a goalkeeper. Initially deployed as a central striker, the forward progressed through the age groups until he was promoted to the reserve team in 2020, alongside long-time academy teammate Arthur Pontet.
"Bradley was always someone who was really well liked by everyone in the dressing room," Pontet, who now works as an agent, told ESPN.
"He was quite reserved, rather than being an extroverted character or someone who made a lot of noise. But on the pitch, he was different -- he showed real personality and a lot of confidence in his abilities."
Indeed, Barcola's fleet-footedness and ability to skip past players saw him earn the nickname "La Sauterelle" or "The Grasshopper." However, his rise was not as immediately meteoric as that of other members of his Lyon cohort, which also included Manchester City's Rayan Cherki and Chelsea's Malo Gusto.
A prolific season with the club's Under-19s -- during which he scored 11 goals in 17 league games -- won Barcola his first professional contract in September, 2021. Two months later, he made his competitive debut for Lyon, assisting in a 3-0 victory over Sparta Prague in the UEFA Europa League.
"Bradley was always a good player and one of the key players in his age group, but he wasn't someone people expected to become a superstar," Pontet said.
"His full potential really revealed itself a little later, when he stepped into professional football. He adapted to that level incredibly quickly and started showing some really impressive qualities. That's when people began to realize just how high his potential could be."
Still, it took a serendipitous turn of events to ignite Barcola's Lyon career. Having struggled for game time under head coach Laurent Blanc, the forward was on course to join Swiss side St. Gallen on loan in January 2023 before the departure of striker Karl Toko Ekambi opened the door for the young Frenchman to shine.
It was an opportunity that Barcola seized, registering five goals and nine assists in 17 appearances in the second half of the 2022-23 campaign. By the end of that same summer, he was a PSG player, joining the Ligue 1 giants for a €45m fee on a five-year contract.
"He's really starting to establish himself"
It didn't take long for Barcola to understand the pressures of representing one of the world's biggest clubs. Just a few months into his time at PSG, he was widely criticized for being wasteful in front of goal during his team's 1-1 draw with Newcastle United in the UEFA Champions League. By December 2023, though, things started to click and Barcola netted his first goal for the Parisians in a 2-1 victory over Nantes.
"It is a clear bet from the club when we go out and find such a young player, a youth international, with a big personality and the quality to burst out," PSG head coach Luis Enrique said after the game.
"He has quite a few minutes for being in a team like ours. He incarnates the present and the future. On Saturday evening, he was superb, the most decisive player in one-on-one situations and he scored an exceptional goal too. He had a great match; there is nothing new regarding Bradley. I am very happy for him."
Barcola's improving form saw him earn a place in Didier Deschamps' France squad for the 2024 Euros. The forward's integration into the national team preceded the most productive season of his career in 2024-25, during which he scored 21 goals and provided 21 assists in 64 appearances.
"Frankly, I don't care," Barcola said in an interview with Le Parisien in Nov. 2024, when asked about the increasing scrutiny he was facing. "Whether people say good or bad things about me, I try to do the same things as before. I train every day, not to listen to people saying 'you're the best' or 'you're the worst'. When people say you're the strongest, it can affect your ego, and that doesn't interest me."
Under Enrique, Barcola has been a key part of PSG's evolution from star-studded nearly-men to arguably the most complete and cohesive team in Europe. However, the arrival of Georgia international Khvicha Kvaratskhelia from Napoli in January 2025 and the emergence of Désiré Doué increased competition for minutes last term, with Barcola's output dropping to 13 goals and seven assists in 49 games.
Having helped PSG retain both their Ligue 1 and Champions League titles in 2026, Barcola was attracted by the prospect of a move to Liverpool and he only enhanced his reputation at Anfield with his performances at the World Cup this summer, where he scored three goals in eight appearances for France as they reached the semifinals.
"It was inevitable that he would reach the highest level, but he did so in his very first season in Paris," Barcola's international teammate Kylian Mbappé told reporters during the tournament. "He's really starting to establish himself with the national team. Bradley doesn't talk much. You have to understand that. But once you do, you know he's a great guy."
The key to unlocking Liverpool's attack?
Liverpool's success this season will depend partly on Barcola's ability to hit the ground running, and how quickly he is able to build relationships with other members of the club's expensively assembled attack.
So far, both Alexander Isak (who signed last summer in an £125m deal from Newcastle) and Florian Wirtz (who joined in the same window for £116m from Bayer Leverkusen) have failed to fulfill their potential on Merseyside, though there is hope that Barcola's pace and directness could help unlock his teammates' talents.
When compared with the other Ligue 1 wingers to have played at least 1500 minutes last season, the France international ranked in the 98th percentile for runs that challenge the backline, according to data gathered by Genius Sports. This means he regularly showed an ability to get in behind the opposition defense and make something happen. He also ranked in the 98th percentile for both touches in the opposition penalty box and successful attacking one-v-ones.
All of those attributes will be an asset to an attack which has lost talisman Mohamed Salah on a free transfer to Trabzonspor this summer. Of course, replicating the Egypt international's staggering output will be no easy task and it is more than likely most of Barcola's contributions will come from the left-hand side of the attack, rather than Salah's favored right flank.
Liverpool had initially looked to sign RB Leipzig's Yan Diomande as a more like-for-like Salah replacement before his £120m move to Real Madrid, while sources told ESPN the Reds remain in the market for another wide forward.
Since joining PSG in 2023, Barcola has played just 13% of his minutes on the right, compared to 77% on the left. While Iraola demands a degree of tactical flexibility from his wingers, it's likely the 23-year-old will mainly operate in his natural position, which could have implications for the future of Cody Gakpo in the final days of the window.
Although uncertainty remains around some elements of Liverpool's attack, the Reds do not doubt that they are signing a genuine game-changer in Barcola. Now it is up to him to prove that their faith in him is justified.
