Federico Chiesa is set to become the seventh Italy player to represent Liverpool in the Premier League era once his transfer from Juventus is completed later this week.
Liverpool are expected to pay a fee just over €13m to sign Chiesa from Juventus. The 26-year-old has been training individually at Continassa as of late, as he has been told that he is not part of Thiago Motta’s plans for the current season.
After a long and unsettling summer, Chiesa now looks to have a new home at Anfield.
Chiesa becomes Liverpool’s latest Italian
Chiesa will become the first Italy international to play for Liverpool since Mario Balotelli, who joined the club back in 2014 in a deal worth around €19m (£16m) from Milan.
The infamous Italian scored just once from 16 Premier League outings, but did net two from five in the Europa League before returning to San Siro for the 2015-16 season.
Fabio Borini was the second-most recent Italian at Liverpool. He joined in 2012-13 from Roma and netted twice from 25 league matches before moving to Sunderland on loan the following season, where he had slightly more success on an individual level.
Alberto Aquilani was another who had a short-lived spell on Merseyside. He arrived in a €20m deal from Roma back in 2009 and lasted just one season before being loaned out to Juventus and then to Milan the season after that.
Andrea Dossena made 18 Premier League appearances over a two year spell, scoring one goal before joining Napoli on a four-year deal worth just over €4m in 2010.
Daniele Padelli was the first ‘official’ Italian to represent Liverpool in the Premier League. He came in on loan from Sampdoria in 2007 to serve as an understudy to Pepe Reina and eventually made one Premier League appearance before returning to his parent club.
Gabriel Paletta also turned out for Liverpool in the mid 2000s.
Technically, he was not an Italian player at the time. Paletta was born in Argentina and joined Liverpool from Atletico Banfield in 2006. He would later go on to play for Parma for five years, and was an Italian passport holder, which allowed him to earn four caps for the Italy national team in 2014.
Every Italian player to represent Liverpool in Premier League
*Gabriel Paletta – 2006-07
Daniele Padelli – 2007
Andrea Dossena – 2008-2010
Alberto Aquilani – 2009-2012
Fabio Borini – 2012-2015
Mario Balotelli – 2014-2016
Italians only play for big clubs generally.
this is bad choice for chiesa since liverpool have wingers in abundance.
he should go to barca, they do not have natural left winger and it would be a parfect match.
He could have chosen Roma which is playing in the Europa League. Sometimes Italians need to help themselves.
Still, Seria A is a disgrace employing 36% of their own countrymen.
VERGOGNA!