Florian Maurice, the former Rennes technical director, is telling a story about Jeremy Jacquet and how the Frenchman was destined for the top. The centre-half was 18 and itching for game time.
“I was out on the pitch with him and he was disappointed because he wasn’t in the squad,” Maurice tells The Athletic. “I can remember the conversation clearly. I told him to stay patient because his moment would come. I knew it.”
Jacquet is the young centre-back earmarked as the future of the Liverpool defence.
In January, owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG) sanctioned a £60million ($81m) deal to bring the 21-year-old to the club, and while he will be given time to settle into his role, especially after missing the closing three months of the season with a shoulder injury and the last few weeks with a minor knee issue, there’s great hope he can be part of a transformational new era.
After returning to full training last week and shining on his first appearance in the 2-0 victory over Como on Sunday, there was both relief and excitement at Anfield to see him finally in action. His 45-minute display, in which he scored, was the highlight of pre-season.
Those who have worked with the under-21 international know why there’s so much hype around this strong, aggressive defender who is also a progressive passer.
Maurice remembers joining Rennes and seeing a 16-year-old Jacquet with “all the attributes to succeed”. Back then, his profile was as it is now.
“Not quite as strong, but tall and fast — great qualities for a centre-back,” Maurice continues. “The difference was the way he was able to play out from the back. So calm and comfortable. He had good ability as a defender, but with the ball he was exceptional.”
“When you are young and this good, sometimes you are not working as hard in the training sessions,” Maurice explains. “Sometimes you think you’re already there, but that’s not the case, and slowly, step by step, he understood what was needed to have a football career.”
One man who helped provide inspiration was Eduardo Camavinga, two years Jacquet’s senior and another great success story from the Rennes academy. The pair never lined up together in the first team, but when Camavinga left for Real Madrid in 2021 as the youngest player to feature for Rennes at 16 years, four months and 27 days, he was seen as the shining light; a player so hard-working, polite and mature beyond his years that his impact left a legacy.
“Camavinga was so detailed and focused on every training session, and when we told the other players about this, it helped with their journey,” says Maurice.
Jacquet benefited, and now all eyes are on the next stage.
“I think working with Virgil van Dijk on a daily basis will be a big thing and help him go to the next level,” Maurice says.
Jeremy Jacquet celebrates scoring against Como with Virgil van Dijk (Lewis Storey/Getty Images)
The Liverpool captain, now into the final year of his contract, is a player Jacquet has looked up to for some time and there’s a strong chance they start the Premier League season as the centre-back pairing.
A degree of patience will still be required because Jacquet has been through a lot at such a young age and even thought about quitting football long before his professional career started.
Jacquet was raised in the Ile‑de‑France region in greater Paris, a hotbed for talent.
From the suburbs, les banlieues, players from multicultural communities are developed across the hundreds of local clubs in the area. Kylian Mbappe emerged from the northeastern suburb of Bondy, where his France team-mates William Saliba and Randal Kolo Muani were also born. Jacquet was raised in Melun, to the southeast of Paris, and it was in the French capital that Ibrahima Konate, the man he is effectively replacing at Liverpool, also started out.
At the World Cup, 55 of the 1,248 players came from this area, including 23 per cent of the France squad, according to Opta.
Every graduate from Paris and the surrounding area has his own story, from playing on a concrete pitch, a cage, or on the street. The start for Jacquet was AS Outre Mer du Bois l’Abbé, a tiny community club where scouts would regularly visit.
The son of a nurse and school caretaker, the values instilled in him by his parents and older brother were crucial to building a strong work ethic. Those who have communicated with his inner circle say his parents, now divorced, and brother remain crucial, as does his trusted agent Michael Manuello, who, according to sources, has helped carefully nurture his career so far.
Jacquet could have been a midfielder. His passing ability and confidence on the ball stem from playing in a more advanced position in his younger years. At RC Joinville (RCJ), the club he joined at eight, he idolised Paul Pogba, hoping one day to follow in the footsteps of the World Cup winner.
Although quiet and well-mannered off the pitch, he is described by RCJ’s technical director, Bruno Sampaio, as a “force of nature” on it.
“He already had a lot of qualities when he was with us,” Sampaio says about the six years spent at RCJ, a club that doesn’t have a senior team and focuses specifically on players aged six to 18.
“Technically very good and, above all, very intelligent in the way he played. He had excellent vision, understood situations very quickly and was capable of controlling the game from midfield.
“He was tall and lean for his age and physically ahead of many of the other boys, but his rapid growth also caused him some difficulties. He was regularly troubled by injuries because his body was changing so quickly.”
Jeremy Jacquet fights for the ball against PSG’s Bradley Barcola (Jean-Francois Monier/AFP via Getty Images)
While playing for the under-12s, Jacquet became so upset by the setbacks, says Sampaio, that when his coach called him to discuss the problems, he burst into tears and said he wanted to quit playing football altogether.
The next day, he was back with a ball at his feet, Sampaio adds, laughing. “When you look at the journey since, you can only say ‘wow.’”
When Rennes spotted Jacquet starring at RCJ, the idea was to mould him into a centre-half. Observers noticed how he already possessed many of the qualities required to excel in the position: his reading of the game was superb, he won the ball back regularly and was able to play out cleanly from the back.
Yet, the early years were bumpy. A rapid growth spurt brought a series of injuries — back, heel, knee — and eventually surgery. “I probably played 10 matches in a year,” he said in an interview with L’Équipe. “But it made me stronger. When I finally put games together with the reserves, everything started to click.”
William Stanger, his former reserve team coach at Rennes, says Jacquet’s battle with injuries was hard for a player who “had to make sense of it all in his head”.
When he started properly growing into his body and understanding the demands of a professional athlete, Stanger says there was no looking back. “He’s a good guy who wants to work hard every day and improve. I love the way he reads the game and, for me, that’s his best quality.”
There was an important loan at Clermont Foot in January 2024 as the defender looked for regular playing time. It paid off. Even relegation from Ligue 1 with the club didn’t affect his development. As he returned for a second season, Rennes called him back early.
Ahmet Schaefer, Clermont’s former president, says Jacquet’s impact was huge. “He was very determined and rigorous in the way he trained,” Schaefer tells The Athletic. “You could always see that pure focus in his eyes, that hunger, that willingness to get a clean sheet. His speed and physicality helped on the pitch but he was also a mature guy and we were thinking: ‘Is he really 18 years old?’”
When Schaefer reluctantly sanctioned his early release from a season-long loan, he received criticism from supporters of a Clermont team fighting against double relegation.
But Schaefer didn’t let him leave without an extra round of negotiations. As well as securing an early termination fee, he says he insisted on adding other components to the deal, including a small percentage of a future transfer for a player who had never registered as a permanent player for Clermont. Rennes did not comment on the clause when contacted by The Athletic.
“It was clear he was in the wrong movie,” Schaefer recalls. “He was above our pay grade. Our coach explained the project and said we would expose him and send him back at a higher level but, if we’re honest, we all thought we had landed a lucky punch.”
Some of the performances for Clermont alerted Liverpool and other Premier League clubs, including Chelsea, to this emerging star. He also caught the eye during the Under-19s European Championships in Northern Ireland in July 2024, when he was part of the France team beaten by Spain in the final.
Character checks also came back with glowing references. “He was humble,” Schaefer adds. “Not one per cent of arrogance and every coach would wish to have a whole team of players like him. I think he has the potential to become the best defender for France.”
Jeremy Jacquet was impressive on his Anfield debut (Darren Staples/AFP via Getty Images)
Much depends on how quickly he settles into life on Merseyside. The only centre-back younger than Jacquet to arrive in the Premier League for a similar fee is Leny Yoro, who joined Manchester United from Lille for £59m in July 2024.
Van Dijk is the only Liverpool defender to cost more than Jacquet, arriving from Southampton as a plug-and-play signing.
It would be some achievement for Liverpool to land a long-term replacement anywhere near as good as the Dutchman, but there’s a strong belief they’ve given themselves as good a chance as possible. Jacquet’s debut will only enhance that feeling.
“Liverpool are buying the sporting attributes but also the character,” says Schaefer, who recalled the last conversation he had with him at Rennes.
“He came to my desk and said, ‘Come to see me at Anfield’. I hope to see him playing well there because I think he has great potential. He can be the complete player.”
