Former Liverpool goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek admits he expected Piotr Zielinski to follow in his Premier League footsteps long before the Poland playmaker became a Serie A champion with Napoli.
Over 15 years after bidding farewell to life at Anfield, Dudek remains the only Polish player to ever represent Liverpool at senior level.
One very nearly became two, however, the Merseyside giants making a £9.5 million bid for a then-22-year-old Piotr Zielinski in 2016, only to see a long-time transfer target swap Empoli for Napoli instead after holding talks with Jurgen Klopp himself (The Guardian).
Now one of Europe’s finest attacking midfielders, Zielinski is a key reason why Napoli are currently celebrating their first Scudetto success in over three decades.
The now-28-year-old schemer – who was once snapped holding up a Liverpool shirt with his name on the back – even scored twice against Klopp’s side in the Champions League group-stages back in September.
Liverpool nearly signed Napoli star Piotr Zielinski
“He’s a very talented player. He already received a Liverpool shirt, when he became the Young Player of the Year in Poland. I was thinking he was going to move to Liverpool, and that would have been a good move,” Dudek recalls, in conversation with The Echo.
“I saw him once on (a) television programme. There was a crossbar challenge. He was juggling the ball, and I was surprised he could play with the right and left foot with the same kind of quality.
“I said, ‘wow, that is a big player!’.
“At that time, he was very young. But you could see the potential he had. You couldn’t tell the difference between his right and left leg, which is always very impressive.”
The now-£70 million-rated Zielinski reportedly turned down a move to West Ham United last summer, and was described as a ‘great player’ by Klopp himself following Napoli’s 4-1 obliteration of Liverpool at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
In total, Zielinski has seven goals and 10 assists this term. A fitting riposte to those who tasked him with adding a more reliable end-product to his game.
“Zielinski is a player with pure technique. He can shake off a marker with a single touch,” Poland legend Zbigniew Boniek said.
“If he scored more goals, Zielinski could become even better than (Kevin) De Bruyne. Piotr is capable of scoring in any way, and also provides many assists.”
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