News'Impressive' - Arne Slot on Giovanni Leoni's arrival at Liverpool

The centre-back completed a move to the Premier League champions having delivered a breakthrough campaign in Serie A during 2024-25.

An Italy U19 international, Leoni has gone straight into training with the senior squad at the AXA Training Centre and made a smooth transition.

“He is a good-looking guy, as [with] most Italians! He has trained with us three times now I think,” said Slot during his pre-match press conference on Thursday.

“If you look at his transfer fee, you can expect that he is already quite grown up for his age – and that’s exactly what I saw.

“He comes in as an 18-year-old just playing with his new teammates as if he is here for longer. Impressive; if you look at how tall he is, fast, comfortable on the ball.

“Yeah, there’s a reason why we paid the transfer fee we did, because we see him as a bright prospect. Is that good English? And he had already three good sessions.

“It also tells you something about the team. If you come to this club, if you come into this team, you feel at ease from the start because it’s a very good and nice group to start your Liverpool career in.”