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Let me explain — I’m happy that an Italian player is receiving praise from a major club like Liverpool, but I wish AC Milan or Inter, Juventus or Napoli were competing for his transfer, not a foreign club."

Leoni comes from a sporting family — his parents played professional water polo — and not turning 19 until December, he has been identified as a highly promising up-and-coming center-back.

In previous summers, Liverpool has gone for promising young center-backs but never managed to get one over the line.

"He's still very young but he is definitely one of the brightest of the new breed of Italian defenders coming through," Emmet Gates, an Italian soccer expert for Destination Calcio, tells Liverpool.com.

"He has the skills of a modern defender, but his main strength is still his physicality, because despite being 18, he is already pretty big.

"They see it not that they have slept on him, but more like 'Why can't we afford a young Italian defender but Liverpool can?'.

I wouldn't be shocked at all if Italy make it to the World Cup in 2026 and he is in the squad, because he is that good — he is definitely one of the most promising defenders of his generation."

"It is a fair price," Bettoni adds