Tottenham readying summer move for teenage Serie A defender

The teenage defender has been impressive since he started playing for the first team for Parma, as he went on to play 17 times in the Serie A last season. Leoni is someone who is tall and is composed whilst also having that confidence on the ball.

Parma are said to be aware of the growing interest in their star teenager and are said to have slapped a €35 million price tag on his signature this summer. If we walk back to the last summer transfer window, we saw this willingness from Daniel Levy to invest in young players by bringing in Archie Gray as a marquee signing from Leeds United, and now he is looking to make a similar deal to bring Leoni to N17 in this summer window.

You don’t really expect Giovanni Leoni to take up first team role right away

Bringing in Leoni will be a long-term solution at N17, given all the vulnerabilities around Cristian Romero, who, while it looks like he is staying put at Tottenham for now, had drawn a lot of interest from La Liga earlier in the summer, and there are questions that still remain over his long-term stay at Tottenham.

And unlike your Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvalls, you wouldn’t expect Leoni to immediately be around the starting eleven at Hotspur Way, but the fact that Levy is looking to make a marquee investment in him means that he will be someone who can play at the heart of defence for years to come, especially given the opportunity to develop under Romero and Micky van de Ven before eventually taking on a leading role.

Alongside Tottenham, Serie A heavyweights including Juventus, AC Milan, and Inter, as well as Napoli, are also keen on his signature, but Levy is moving with intent.