Federico Chiesa’s Liverpool career has been a damp squib so far, and there are serious questions over whether he will remain at the club next season.
The Italian — who recently showed his funny side on Instagram — was viewed as an opportunistic buy from Juventus last summer, as a player who was once valued by the Turin club at over $100 million was made available for a fraction of that price.
Liverpool signed Chiesa for $13 million plus $3 million in possible add-ons, with the Euro 2020 winner keen to get his career back on track after a couple of underwhelming years in Serie A.
Chiesa has not been the same player since sustaining a serious knee injury during the 2021-22 season, and the move to Anfield has not provided the boost that he would have been hoping for.
Chiesa has lined up in just three games since moving to Merseyside, with none of those starts coming in the Premier League, and his only Champions League start coming in a dead rubber against PSV Eindhoven.
Despite Liverpool wrapping up the title with four games of the season to spare, Chiesa has not started in either of Liverpool’s two games since the title-clinching 5-1 drubbing of Tottenham.
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The winger was brought on as an 82nd-minute substitute in the 3-1 loss to Chelsea earlier this month, and he was not included in the game-day squad for the draw against Arsenal.
According to reports in Italy, Chiesa could be offloaded this summer, with Atalanta a possible destination for the 27-year-old winger.
Liverpool is apparently interested in signing Ademola Lookman, who is valued at $67 million by Atalanta, but that price could be driven down by the inclusion of Chiesa in a player-plus-cash swap deal.
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Lookman, formerly of Everton, has scored 20 goals and registered seven assists for Atalanta this season, but he is expected to move on to pastures new in the off-season.
The Nigeria international turns 28 in October, so Liverpool may be reluctant to sign him given the club tends to prioritize recruiting players in their early and mid-20s.
As for Chiesa, his substitute appearance at Stamford Bridge guaranteed him a Premier League winner’s medal. Premier League rules stipulate that players must make five league appearances to absolutely guarantee themselves a medal — although the club could still have chosen to give him a medal had he not reached five appearances.
Former Liverpool player Mario Balotelli remains the only Italian player who has made a significant contribution to a Premier League title win — with Manchester City in 2011-12 — but Chiesa is the third player from Italy to collect a winner’s medal after Balotelli and former Chelsea goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini, who operated as Petr Cech’s back-up in 2004-05 and 2005-06.
