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Liverpool has only spent more than the $35 million (£26 million) that has been splashed out on Giovanni Leoni a total of 23 times in its history. And not one of those who cost more was a teenager.
So that tells you just how highly rated Leoni, who watched the win over Bournemouth on Friday a couple of hours after his move was confirmed, really is. Liverpool has been prepared to go big for a player in a position that it has been in need of strengthening.
In 2023, the Reds admired Levi Colwill. A year on, they missed out on Leny Yoro, and then in 2024, Dean Huijsen chose Real Madrid. Liverpool needed a young defender to come in with one eye on the future, and Leoni is the chosen one.
"Very few in Italy have truly grasped how big a talent Leoni is or how much his potential is because of his quick rise in some months," Kaustubh Pandey told Liverpool.com.
"He has a very high ceiling. That is so evident from how well he did under pressure at Parma last season under Cristian Chivu when they were under the threat of relegation.
"They relied so much on their backline to get key points, and Leoni was massive — both physically and performance-wise."
Leoni has only played 17 games in Serie A so far in his career and is not even an Italy U21 player yet, let alone a full senior international. But he is physically ready to play regular men's soccer.
"He is physically imposing, and this allows him to dominate opposition center forwards quite well," Pandey says. "He reads the game well and has shown enough pace to operate in a higher line.
"There is still some work that needs to be done from a pure ball-playing perspective, but he has a very decent technical foundation.
"If he had spent another season at Parma, that price would've gone to well over €30 million. For an 18-year-old who has done so well under pressure and was being considered for the Italian national team, that money can prove to be a bargain some years later.
"He's younger than Diego Coppola, who has joined Brighton, but probably has a higher ceiling and a more complete skillset."
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In Italy, there was a feeling at one point that Leoni would join one of the Milan teams. Neither, though, could go as high as Liverpool when it came to the transfer fee.
"For a long while, I felt the links involving Liverpool were appearing as a way of forcing Inter to move quickly when they were prioritising Ademola Lookman," Pandey explains.
"He also initially wanted Inter and was desperate. But when they never made a move, Leoni's stance changed, and everything happened very quickly.
"I feel like he needs time. Physically, he is fine. But he needs time to adjust to the pace of the game in England. I feel like he will play earlier than we expect, but Arne Slot should initially protect him."
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