Exclusive: French forward makes decision on move to Liverpool after phone call with Jurgen Klopp

Liverpool have withdrawn their interest in Celtic's Odsonne Edouard and will not pursue the France U21 forward this summer.

We reported at the end of March that Liverpool were ready to offer Divock Origi plus cash in a deal for Edouard but the Belgian has no interest in moving to Scotland to join Celtic.

The deal depended on Origi's willingness to swap clubs with Edouard but it was clear from the off that it was highly unlikely that it would be an agreeable deal for the Liverpool forward.

Anfield Central can now report that Edouard is no longer a target for the Reds for two reasons. The first being that Origi isn't interested in the switch to Scotland while the second is that the France U21 forward himself doesn't think he'd get enough game time with the Reds.

We understand that he had a phone call with Jurgen Klopp but wasn't sold on the role that he would have on Merseyside - which is understandable.

While Liverpool are keen to add a centre-forward to their ranks, they do already have great options upfront.

They might be underperforming this season but Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino are classy players and Diogo Jota is out of form.

There's no criticising Mohamed Salah after he reached 20 Premier League goals again for the Reds with a strike against Newcastle United.

Edouard is concerned that if he moved to Liverpool, he'd battle to find regular game time competing with the talent at Jürgen Klopp's disposal.

Edouard is also being chased by Leicester City and while he'd still be in competition with Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho, he would have a much more realistic pathway to the first team at the King Power Stadium.

He's scored 20 goals and assisted 6 this season for Celtic, sparking interest across Europe but he won't be moving to Liverpool even with Origi likely to leave the club.