{"id":667380,"date":"2026-03-29T10:04:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T14:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=667380"},"modified":"2026-03-29T10:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T14:28:13","slug":"liverpool-chelsea-chasing-maxence-lacroix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/03\/29\/liverpool-chelsea-chasing-maxence-lacroix\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool and Chelsea Among Clubs Chasing Recent International Debutant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We are entering the final run of Premier League games for the 2025\/26 season, with plenty still to play for. Despite twists and turns in store, and the 2026 World Cup just around the corner, the transfer rumours appear to be picking up. According to <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.teamtalk.com\/news\/crystal-palace-face-fight-keep-liverpool-centre-back-target-maxence-lacroix\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span>Graeme Bailey at TeamTalk<\/span><\/a>, Crystal Palace are bracing themselves for further interest in French defender <a  href=\"https:\/\/roundtable.io\/sports\/soccer\/premier-league\/crystal-palace\/players\/lacroix-earns-france-debut-as-les-blues-beat-brazil\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span>Maxence Lacroix<\/span><\/a>, who recently earned his first international cap for France in the 2-1 victory over Brazil. It appears <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/03\/22\/anfields-greatest-european-nights\/\" target=\"_self\"><span>Liverpool<\/span><\/a> and Chelsea are interested in the 25-year-old defender.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Liverpool and Chelsea Interested in Maxence Lacroix<\/h2>\n<h3>Crystal Palace Braced for Further Lacroix Interest<\/h3>\n<p>Lacroix is aiming to end the 2025\/26 season on a high, with Palace still in the Conference League and the 2026 World Cup just around the corner. He recently discussed his hopes for the season:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy dream is to win the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/03\/28\/six-golden-tickets-twelve-contenders-predictions-for-the-final-world-cup-spots\/\" target=\"_self\"><span>World Cup<\/span><\/a> \u2013 I want to win the World Cup with France.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt Palace, of course, right now it\u2019s to win the Conference League.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/03\/11\/the-cost-of-the-world-cup-for-england-fans\/\" target=\"_self\">The Cost of the World Cup for England Fans<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can\u2019t win the Premier League right now, but in the Conference League, we have our chance \u2013 so this is our ambition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His rise to earning his first France cap has not gone unnoticed, with Liverpool, Chelsea, Aston Villa, and Bayern Munich all tracking Lacroix\u2019s progress.<\/p>\n<p>Liverpool and Chelsea have both suffered from below-par defensive performances this season. The Reds have already signed <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.beinsports.com\/en-us\/soccer\/premier-league\/articles\/new-liverpool-signing-jacquet-sustains-serious-injury-2026-02-08\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span>Jeremy Jacquet<\/span><\/a> for next season, but seem determined to strengthen further, with Ibrahima Konate set to depart on a free transfer.<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea\u2019s defensive performances this season have been disappointing. The West London club will surely be desperate for defensive reinforcements this summer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: 600px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"1ffbae35d432d0d71911ca2a0b209fbb\" image-id=\"prsiAvNE90gj\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 2598px; aspect-ratio: 2598\/1732;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<h3><span>Maxence Lacroix\u00a0<\/span>Qualities<\/h3>\n<p>Lacroix does not have a release clause, but he looks set to attract interest this summer. The Frenchman excels in 1v1 situations and possesses impressive recovery speed. He reads the game well, which often helps him cut out many attacks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/02\/13\/liverpool-boss-arne-slot-two-players-very-important\/\" target=\"_self\">Liverpool Boss Arne Slot Discusses Two Players Who Are \u2018Very Important\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Crystal Palace defender is an aggressive player and would be an instant upgrade for Chelsea, while giving Liverpool another option. He\u2019s comfortable with the ball at his feet, but doesn\u2019t take any unnecessary risks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Featured Image Credit<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p>SmartFrame &#8211; <span>SportImage<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are entering the final run of Premier League games for the 2025\/26 season, with plenty still to play for. Despite twists and turns in store, and the 2026 World Cup just around the corner, the transfer rumours appear to be picking up. According to Graeme Bailey at TeamTalk, Crystal Palace are bracing themselves for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4106,"featured_media":667382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":true,"sfio_embed_code":"<smartframe-embed customer-id=\"84d65181a95c24c4fea73e44b4e27a17\" image-id=\"ltKDKV5QsPND\" style=\"width: 100%;max-width: 3290px;aspect-ratio: 3290\/2193\"><\/smartframe-embed><!-- https:\/\/smartframe.io\/embedding-support -->","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30,11,16,3,7188],"tags":[8611,7298,31681],"class_list":["post-667380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-chelsea","category-liverpool","category-premier-league","category-rumours","tag-chelsea-transfer-rumours","tag-liverpool-transfer-rumours","tag-maxence-lacroix"],"modified_by":"Ricky Carroll, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667380"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":667397,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667380\/revisions\/667397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}