Arne Slot pays Giovanni Leoni a massive compliment as brilliant exchange captured on camera | OneFootball

Four days ago, Giovanni Leoni became Liverpool’s latest signing as the Italian defender joined from Parma in his homeland.

The Reds have paid £26m for the 18-year-old, whose arrival restores Arne Slot’s complement of senior centre-back options to four, with that part of the squad having previously looked threadbare after Jarell Quansah moved to Bayer Leverkusen.

With the Premier League champions not in action again until they play Newcastle next Monday, the newcomer will have ample time to get acquainted with his new teammates before the first opportunity to potentially make his debut.

Slot likens Leoni to Van Dijk

In the meantime, Liverpool’s official social media channels have shared a video clip of Leoni being greeted by Slot in a heartwarming exchange.

The pair are seen embracing before the head coach says the teenager is ‘like Virgil [van Dijk]’ – a comparison made primarily because of the defenders’ heights, but nonetheless a significant compliment to pay to the young Italian, who TNT Sports commentator Adam Summerton has tipped to become a ‘star’.

The footage shows the pair conversing in English and the Reds boss informing the centre-back of the team’s training schedule in the days leading up to the Newcastle game, before the duo share another brief hug.

Image via @LFC on X

When could Leoni make his Liverpool debut?

There aren’t too many defenders who’d be able to look down on the 1.95-metre tall Van Dijk, but according to Transfermarkt, Leoni is one of them at a towering 1.96 metres.

Despite his youth, Liverpool’s new signing is unsurprisingly well able to look after himself in one-on-one battles against opposition forwards. As per Total Football Analysis, he won seven out of eight duels in Parma’s 1-0 win over Juventus in April – an excellent return for a teenager in Serie A.

The youngster is unlikely to be thrown in at the deep end against Newcastle and Arsenal – both of whom qualified for this season’s Champions League – in the next fortnight, but the mid-September visit to Burnley might offer an opportunity for a debut.

Failing that, he’ll likely feature in the Reds’ first Carabao Cup game of the season later that month, when Slot will almost certainly field a much-changed starting XI, especially with European commitments also kicking into gear around that time.

Leoni may be more than 15 years Van Dijk’s junior, but hopefully the towering duo will get to play alongside each other on a few occasions at Liverpool over the next couple of years before our captain eventually moves on.

If the new arrival can even come close to replicating the impact made by his positional peer to whom Slot compared him, and living up to the lofty billing of former Italy coach Arrigo Sacchi, the Reds will have pulled off yet another masterstroke in the transfer market by nabbing him for £26m!

You can view Slot’s exchange with Leoni below, via @LFC on X: