Napoli star Piotr Zielinski scored a brace against Liverpool last night, becoming an even bigger transfer regret for Jurgen Klopp who wanted to sign him in 2016.
The Poland international has had a great start to the season regardless of his two goals against the Reds last night. He seems to be back to his standards after a disappointing 2021-22 campaign where he scored just eight goals in 42 appearances across all competitions.
The 28-year-old has three goals in six games this season and has delivered four assists so far.
As reported by La Gazzetta dello Sport, Zielinski was a huge transfer target for Klopp’s Liverpool in 2016 when Zielinski was playing for Empoli.
According to the report, at that time even Robert Lewandowski spoke to his compatriot about Klopp and how good he was. However, Napoli eventually struck a deal with the Tuscans, signing the midfielder for €16m.
Zielinski has scored 43 goals in 287 appearances with the Partenopei, winning one Coppa Italia.
“We dominated and it was a perfect game last night,” he told Sky Sport Italia after Napoli’s win over Liverpool, inspired by his brace.
“We beat a top-class opponent, we are happy, but we know that this is only the beginning.”
On the other hand, Klopp had suggested in a pre-match press conference on Tuesday that the Poland international could have caused trouble for his team :
“They are a young team but they are all good. I’m not 100% sure but I think not too long ago, there was a nervous situation around Napoli when players left, now it’s settled again. One player who always stayed was Zielinski and could build around him.”
Unfortunately Napoli are not as sclever to sign such names as Dzenko and Arthur, Napoli have to settle for Piotr and Karadonna