Liverpool believe they have pulled off an almighty coup. In fact, they think they are signing the best young defender on the market. Andrea Pirlo and Arrigo Sacchi are among those that agree.
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Liverpool believe they have pulled off an almighty coup. In fact,
they think they are signing the best young defender on the market.
Parma wanted £35million for Giovanni Leoni but a deal has been done for around £25.8m, with the player jetting in for a medical to become a much-needed addition to what was becoming a centre back department lacking in depth.
The
18-year-old will challenge the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate the currently injured Joe Gomez, and there is huge excitement at the Premier League champions. Confidential has spoken to sources both on Merseyside and in Italy to try to paint a picture on what the Premier League champions are getting for their money.
‘He's a commanding defender, with a strong physique,’ Serie A expert Eleonora Trotta, who has watched Leoni closely, tells us. ‘He has good technique. Good with his feet and in setting up the game. Someone here compared him to Alessandro Nesta.
'The fee is not a small sum. He has very few appearances in Serie A (17, all last season for Parma), but being very young he can certainly explode. No one in Italy has ever considered spending more than €25m (£21.5m) on him so we will see if that becomes a regret.
‘Of course, the club with the biggest regret is Inter, who, a year ago, could have bought him for €7m (£6m). Cristian Chivu was undoubtedly instrumental in his career. We're talking about a serious, mature, and very self-aware young man.
‘I know his yes to Liverpool was immediate: he really wanted to experience England.’
Chivu, the legendary former Inter Milan centre back and 2010 Treble winner, was Leoni's boss for all of four months at the end of last season, but made a huge impact in keeping them up in Serie A. So much so that Champions League finalists Inter poached him when Simone Inzaghi left for Saudi Arabia this summer.
The glowing references keep coming for Leoni, and the next one does not get much better. Here's one of the godfathers of Italian football,
the legendary AC Milan manager Arrigo Sacchi, who wrote in Gazzetta dello Sport yesterday: ‘I am convinced he’ll be the lynchpin of the Azzurri defence for a long time.
‘Some, regarding a possible transfer to Liverpool, object that this young man has only made 17 Serie A appearances so far. Aren’t those few? No, I reply. Not few, because on those occasions Leoni has demonstrated the qualities needed to go far.
‘If someone is good, if someone has their head in the right place, it’s immediately obvious. A person can have 200 Serie A games under their belts and still not possess the qualities Leoni displayed in his first season as an adult. Talent knows no age.’
Another icon of calcio,
Andrea Pirlo, who coached Leoni as a kid at Sampdoria, said last year: ‘If someone had doubts about starting him from the first minute, I had none. I see him every day in training. He played as a mature youngster, he will become a strong footballer.'
Leoni is
6ft 5in but fast, adept in possession and can battle attackers like he has years of experience. When studying footage of him, Daily Mail Sport watched the teenager against Napoli, the eventual Scudetto winners last season.
He was marking Romelu Lukaku and bullied the 32-year-old like he was 14 years his senior, not the other way around. He covered his front post well, dominated in the air and made some important recovery runs in the 0-0 draw, which was a great result for relegation-threatened Parma.
Sources in Italy say he is in line to be fast-tracked to the national team senior squad - he has yet to play for the Under 21s.
And speaking of the national team, he was born five months after the Azzurri won the 2006 World Cup - so he has never, somehow, seen them play a knockout match in the biggest tournament of all. With Leoni at the back, that could soon change.
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