Klopp highly rates Keita, left, but Leipzig are not keen to sell the midfielder

Liverpool will have to smash their transfer record to have any hope of signing the Leipzig midfielder Naby Keita after the German side insisted that he was not for sale.

Jürgen Klopp, the Liverpool manager, wants Keita to reinforce the centre of his midfield and has made the 22-year-old from Guinea, and the Southampton defender Virgil van Dijk, his top transfer priorities.

Keita has emerged as one of the Bundesliga’s finest young talents but Leipzig are determined to keep the squad that qualified for the Champions League for the first time intact.

Klopp had a go at playing a didgeridoo during the end-of-season trip to Australia JOHN POWELL/LIVERPOOL FC/GETTY IMAGES

“We have decided that we will not sell any player from our starting line-up,” Oliver Mintzlaff, the club’s chief executive, said. “Ralf Rangnick [sporting director] told this to our team at the end