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Shaqiri started just five games for Bayern this term. Kerstin Joensson
On the Move

Another target slips through Rodgers' grasp as Shaqiri moves to Inter

He follows Lukas Podolski in moving to the San Siro this month.

LIVERPOOL HAVE MISSED out on long-term transfer target Xherdan Shaqiri as Roberto Mancini has swooped to make his second signing as Inter Milan manager in the space of a week.

Neither Inter or Shaqiri’s former club, Bayern Munich, have released details of the deal but reports suggest Inter will pay €2 million for the services of the 23-year-old until the end of the season.

More significantly, however, from a Liverpool point of view, Inter will be obliged to make the deal permanent in the summer with a fee of €14 million being reported by AFP.

It’s also claimed that there will be an extra payment should Inter, currently 11th in Serie A, qualify for next season’s Champions League.

“There is total agreement between Inter and Bayern Munich for the arrival of Xherdan Shaqiri,” the club tweeted.

For Liverpool, Shaqiri’s move to the San Siro represents another transfer market setback. The Reds had been persistently linked with Shaqiri over the past 18 months and after missing out on him during the summer, their pursuit of the Swiss international had intensified in the last week with the news of Steven Gerrard’s impending departure.

Several outlets had reported the midfielder, who joined Bayern from Basel in 2012, had verbally agreed a deal with Liverpool earlier in the week while Stoke City had also expressed their interest in the player who was under contract in Germany until June 2016.

Shaqiri, who came up through the ranks at Basel, scored three goals for Switzerland at last summer’s World Cup but found it increasingly difficult to break into Pep Guardiola’s Bayern side against the competition of Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben.

He becomes the second mid-season recruit for Inter after the recent arrival of German striker Lukas Poldoski from Arsenal.

With additional reporting from - © AFP, 2015

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