Arrigo Sacchi distilled the issues facing Italian football as he analysed Giovanni Leoni’s impending move to Liverpool.

Writing in La Gazzetta dello Sport on Wednesday, the former Italy manager admitted being simultaneously elated and frustrated by the 18-year-old’s switch from Parma to the Premier League champions.

While excited to see such a young player on the radar of a big club, Sacchi questioned why it was Liverpool who were on the verge of snapping up Leoni, rather than the likes of Napoli, Juventus or one of the Milanese giants.

It is a valid question, the answer to which perhaps goes beyond the simplistic notion the Premier League operates on a different financial level than Serie A.

Of course, Liverpool’s appeal may have proved too strong to resist even had a big Italian club shown interest in Leoni, who has never hidden his admiration for the Premier League and for the Reds in particular.

According to The Athletic, the Merseysiders are close to finalising a £26million-plus add-ons deal to sign the teenager, with Arne Slot confirming in his press conference on Thursday that terms had been agreed with Parma and the player.

“The clubs have agreed a deal but he hasn’t signed for us yet,” he said. “The moment he signs for us, I can go into more detail.” 

Leoni will bolster Slot’s defensive options, with the Dutchman having only three centre-backs at his disposal following Jarell Quansah’s departure for Bayer Leverkusen last month.

Liverpool are understood to consider Leoni as one of the most talented young defenders in Europe and have not been put off by the fact the Italian has made only 17 appearances in Serie A, with 14 starts.

All of them came with Parma last term. Leoni had to bide his time, with his Serie A debut against Venezia in November his only appearance in the first 12 matches, before making three more starts in December.

Fabio Pecchia’s sacking in February and Cristian Chivu’s arrival brought more opportunities for the teenager, who played 10 of Parma’s final 13 games of the season as they finished 16th on their return to the top flight.

Selling Leoni represents a major coup for Parma, who paid £4.1m to Sampdoria for his services in July last year, barely a month after the Blucerchiati had signed him permanently from Padova.

He made his senior debut with the Biancoscudati in March 2023, becoming the youngest footballer to feature in professional football in Italy during the season at the age of 16 years and three months.

The Rome-born centre-back then joined Sampdoria on loan ahead of the 2023-24 campaign, starting nine of his 12 Serie B appearances with the Genoese and impressing the club enough to convince them to sign him permanently.

“From the very first training sessions, we immediately knew he could easily hold his own with the first team, and that’s exactly what happened,” former Sampdoria assistant manager Roberto Baronio said of Leoni.

“He played his first game as a substitute and did very well. I remember he wasn’t fazed by the pressure. Marassi is an important stage with a fantastic fanbase. That kind of atmosphere can either encourage you or you can find it daunting, and he managed to turn it into one of his real strengths.”

An imposing defender at 6ft 5in, Leoni won 63% of his aerial duels last season and showed his physical strength against the likes of Dusan Vlahovic and Romelu Lukaku, effectively marking the Belgian out of the game on the penultimate day of the Serie A season as Parma held Napoli to a goalless draw at the Tardini.

But what stands out the most about the Italy Under-19 international is arguably his confidence with the ball at his feet.

Last season, according to sofascore.com, he ranked third in terms of average passes per 90 minutes among the Parma players to have featured in at least 10 games, with 46.3 passes, while his 88.7% pass completion rate was also the team’s third-best.

Those figures are expected to increase at Liverpool, a team who dominates possession far more than Parma did last season, when Chivu’s pragmatic approach had them set up in a defensive 3-5-2.

The Ducali averaged just 44.2% of possession last season, the fourth-lowest total in Serie A, while Liverpool’s 57.7% was the second-highest figure in the Premier League behind Manchester City.

Leoni, of course, is far from the finished product, but he will be given time to develop at Anfield and learning from the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate will only help his growth as a player.

As for the concerns over his relative lack of experience, Sacchi has no doubts.

“You can immediately tell if someone is good and has their head screwed on right,” he wrote in his column. “Someone can have 200 Serie A games under their belt, but not possess the qualities that Leoni showed in his first ‘senior’ season. Talent has no age.”