{"id":65960,"date":"2025-08-14T08:23:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T08:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/65960\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T08:23:35","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T08:23:35","slug":"liverpool-agree-26m-transfer-for-centre-back-giovanni-leoni-liverpool-fc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/65960\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool agree \u00a326m transfer for centre-back Giovanni Leoni – Liverpool FC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liverpool have agreed a deal with Serie A side Parma for the transfer of young centre-back Giovanni Leoni<\/a>, who will now undergo a medical with the champions.<\/p>\n

Progress was quickly made in talks with Parma this week after being given encouragement that Leoni would be open to a move away from Italy.<\/p>\n

A deal was struck on Wednesday night worth \u00a326 million plus add-ons, and the 18-year-old will now travel for his medical on Thursday before signing a long-term contract.<\/p>\n

This Is Anfield understands Leoni also attracted interest from a number of top sides in Serie A as well as the Premier League<\/a> but the player made clear he only wanted Liverpool.<\/p>\n

Suggestions the youngster could rejoin Parma on loan were wide of the mark, and instead he is in line for an immediate first-team role.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This move comes after Jarell Quansah<\/a>\u2018s \u00a335 million switch to Bayer Leverkusen<\/a>, while another injury to Joe Gomez<\/a> in pre-season highlighted the lack of specialist depth in Arne Slot<\/a>\u2018s centre-back ranks.<\/p>\n

There are high hopes for Leoni\u2019s future, with Liverpool\u2019s recruitment staff considering him one of the best young centre-backs in Europe.<\/p>\n

Provided the transfer goes through as expected, it will satisfy a long-held desire to recruit a high-potential defender to join the senior setup.<\/p>\n

Liverpool previously failed in their pursuit of Levi Colwill, Leny Yoro and Dean Huijsen \u2013 the latter pair opting for moves to Man United<\/a> and Real Madrid<\/a> respectively instead \u2013 while Quansah chose to progress his career elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,<\/p>\n

With a deal also in the works for Crystal Palace<\/a> captain Marc Guehi, the champions can turn arguably their weakest position in terms of depth into one of their biggest strengths.<\/p>\n

Leoni only joined Parma last year, signing a three-year deal following a short stint at Sampdoria, before going on to make 17 appearances in Serie A in 2024\/25.<\/p>\n

He is a tall defender at 6\u20195\u2033 and looks to be both strong on the ground and in the air, while boasting the quality in possession required for a centre-back in Slot\u2019s system.<\/p>\n

The Italy youth international will still be eligible to play for the U21s as well as the U19s in the UEFA Youth League, while he will attain homegrown status if he is registered to clubs in England or Wales for the next three seasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liverpool have agreed a deal with Serie A side Parma for the transfer of young centre-back Giovanni Leoni,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59,134,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-65960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-gb","tag-liverpool-fc","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}