Liverpool can abandon hope of buying Argentine forward Mauro Zarate because Lazio are determined to keep their loan signing from Qatar's Al-Sadd, the Serie A club's president said on Tuesday.

"There is zero chance. Lazio will exercise their option to buy Zarate and they will not sell Zarate to Liverpool, full stop," Claudio Lotito told Reuters.

Media reports have said Liverpool are interested in the former Birmingham City striker, who has scored 12 league goals for the Rome club this season.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.