Juventus have set up a scouting routine for a player who has made just one competitive appearance for Liverpool. According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, the Serie A club will have scouts monitor Giovanni Leoni weekly as soon as the 19-year-old is back in a matchday squad.

Sporting director Marco Ottolini and technical director Ricky Massara are the pair driving the pursuit. According to the same report, the Italian club views Leoni as a central piece of a plan to rebuild its core of Italian players, with a renewed bid earmarked for the 2027 window.

Liverpool’s door has stayed closed. A loan enquiry over the summer was turned down, and the Anfield club is not open to a sale or a temporary move, with Leoni’s contract running until 2031.

From Parma to a Carabao Cup debut cut short

Leoni joined from Parma for a reported £26m ahead of the 2025/26 season. He tore his ACL on his senior Liverpool debut, impressing for 81 minutes of a 2-1 Carabao Cup win over Southampton before landing awkwardly on the touchline.

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The teenager has been sidelined for over a year. He is now expected back later in October, with first-team selection following a planned ramp-up through under-21 football once the international break ends.

A rehab year used, not lost

Through the long layoff, Leoni spent his time studying Liverpool’s system and improving his English, according to The Athletic. Staff at the club have taken note of the mentality the Italian has shown through rehabilitation.

That attitude is one of the reasons Liverpool have treated Leoni as a long-term defensive option, not a loan asset to be shipped out. The exit of Ibrahima Konate at the end of last season sharpened that view, with Jeremy Jacquet and Ronald Araujo, who arrived on loan from Barcelona, among the names already supporting Virgil van Dijk.

Calafiori and Palestra pushed down the list

Juventus had also been looking at other Italian defenders in the Premier League, including Riccardo Calafiori and Marco Palestra. Both have been moved down the list, judged too expensive or too difficult to prise away.

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Leoni’s weekly dossier is the alternative Ottolini and Massara believe they can act on. Liverpool are expected to welcome him back into a matchday squad before the end of October.

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