Jurgen Klopp keeping money talk away from gushing Jude Bellingham praise

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp admits he does not want to speculate on the growing price tag of Jude Bellingham as the 19-year-old 's value continues to increase rapidly.

Klopp is a long-time admirer of the Borussia Dortmund midfielder and the teenager is expected to be his number one summer target, with the club understood to have already put in a large amount of groundwork into a potential transfer.

However, the competition for the England international, who had a stellar World Cup, is already fierce with the likes of Real Madrid and a number of other Premier League sides in the running.

Dortmund will hope that interest, plus his displays in Qatar, will spark an auction for the player come the end of the season.

However, Klopp, who made a rare exception in speaking about the player, does not want - somewhat understandably considering Liverpool would most likely lose a bidding war with their rivals - to put a price on someone who could be a generational talent.

"I don't like to talk about money when you talk about a player like him. Everyone can see he is just exceptional," said the Liverpool manager.

"If you mention to someone who has no clue about football, or who knows about football and has not watched it for a while (and ask) 'How old do you think Jude Bellingham is?', I don't think anyone would get even close to his age.

"They would say 28 or 29 because he plays so mature. He played an exceptional World Cup. Absolutely exceptional.

"With all the things he has and things he can improve, to describe him I would say the things he can do are difficult to learn, and the things he can improve are easy to learn.

"So, yes, he is a really good player. What can I say? I have thought that already for two or three years since he had