Liverpool agree fee for new centre-back | OneFootball

Liverpool have agreed a £26m fee with Parma for Italian defender Giovanni Leoni.

The 18-year-old centre-back is set to become their sixth major summer signing and take their spending in this window past £300m.

Leoni will begin a medical on Merseyside on Thursday and will discuss personal terms, which are not expected to be a problem after he made it clear his preference was to join Liverpool.

The Italy Under-19 international had also attracted interest from Internazionale as well as other Premier League clubs and will go straight into Liverpool’s squad, with any talk of a loan move ruled out.

He will join Liverpool after they stepped up their attempts to find a replacement for Jarell Quansah, who was sold to Bayer Leverkusen.

The Premier League champions have also opened talks with Crystal Palace about England centre-back Marc Guehi. Their move for Leoni has no bearing on their interest in Guehi, with no sign so far they can agree a fee with Palace.

Liverpool have had to use midfielders Ryan Gravenberch, Wataru Endo and Trey Nyoni and left-back Andy Robertson as centre-backs in pre-season after the sale of Quansah and when Joe Gomez was injured and Virgil van Dijk was ill.

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Liverpool want to sign defender Giovanni Leoni (Getty Images)

Head coach Arne Slot admitted after Sunday’s Community Shield defeat to Palace that their defending was a concern, with nine goals conceded in their last four games.

And their need for defensive reinforcements was also greater as Ibrahima Konate is in the last year of his contract.

Now Leoni is set to join Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Jeremie Frimpong, Milos Kerkez and Giorgi Mamardashvili, whose transfer from Valencia was arranged last year, among their summer signings.