Liverpool have agreed a £116m deal to sign Germany attacking midfielder Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen.
The fee includes a guaranteed £100m and a further £16m in add-ons.
Those bonus payments would become payable if the Reds achieve a sustained level of success at elite level - and would only then become a British record.
The British record for an initial fee remains Chelsea's £107m signing of Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez from Benfica in 2023.
Chelsea also brought in Brighton midfielder Moises Caicedo for an initial £100m fee, which could rise to £115m.