Liverpool were supposedly interested in signing Piotr Zielinski last summer – eight years on from the Reds first failing to land the Poland international. The 30-year-old ultimately joined Inter Milan on a free transfer when his Napoli contract expired.
But he has claimed that he again had interest from Liverpool before he made the decision to move to the San Siro.
“Liverpool, Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Juventus were interested in me,” he revealed to Kanal Sportowy via FcInterNews. “I had specific requests from Barcelona. I like Italy. When I arrived at Napoli, I felt good, it would have been difficult for me to go to England, for example.
“I would have considered Spain, but the priority was to continue my career in Italy. I’m at Inter, but Napoli is also a great club and I would have been happy to extend my contract.”
While he might not have wanted to consider a switch to the Premier League this time around, that certainly wasn’t the case back in 2016 when Klopp twice tried to bring the midfielder to Anfield – with their interest even pre-dating his arrival – and he was even pictured in a Liverpool shirt.
Tracked by the Reds as a teenager, he stayed with local club Zaglebie Lubin before moving to Udinese aged just 17. Klopp’s first attempt then came less than four years later in January 2016 when the Poland international was midway through his second season on loan at Empoli from Udinese.
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While he might not have wanted to consider a switch to the Premier League this time around, that certainly wasn’t the case back in 2016 when Klopp twice tried to bring the midfielder to Anfield – with their interest even pre-dating his arrival – and he was even pictured in a Liverpool shirt.
Tracked by the Reds as a teenager, he stayed with local club Zaglebie Lubin before moving to Udinese aged just 17. Klopp’s first attempt then came less than four years later in January 2016 when the Poland international was midway through his second season on loan at Empoli from Udinese.
His parent club were prepared to sell him at the time and the midfielder agonised over his future, even meeting with Klopp, but ultimately couldn’t bring himself to cut short his loan spell with Empoli.“There were days when I was walking out of home, looked into my mobile and I didn’t know what to do,” Zielinski told Poland’s Przeglad Sportowy. “I spoke a lot with Konrad Golos and Tomasz Dawidowski – my managers from the agency representing me.
“Everyone said: ‘Great offer, Klopp wants you, it’s a fairytale in terms of finances’. All fine, but I wasn’t convinced. I was driving my car and I said to my girlfriend: ‘No, red light, I’m not leaving’.
“I felt great in Empoli, I didn’t want to leave the lads when we were battling for the European places. My head was a mess.
