Liverpool’s Chiesa is ‘here to win’ and now has the chance to prove it

When British-record signing Alexander Isak opened his Liverpool account with a goal in the Carabao Cup against Southampton on Tuesday night, the first person he looked to was Federico Chiesa. The Italy international had played an integral role in helping Isak get off the mark for his new club, intercepting a loose pass from goalkeeper Alex McCarthy and quickly sliding it across the face of goal for his teammate to fire home.

Late in the second half, with Liverpool in need of yet another late winner, Chiesa deftly gathered Andrew Robertson‘s lofted ball and fed it into the path of Hugo Ekitike, who made no mistake with a cool finish in front of the Kop … before the striker was shown a second yellow card for removing his shirt in celebration.

Head coach Arne Slot lamented the Ekitike’s behavior after the match, calling his dismissal “needless and stupid,” with a large part of his frustration stemming from the fact he had not shared the limelight with the player who had so brilliantly assisted him.

“I am old fashioned, I’m 47 and old maybe,” Slot said. “I haven’t played at this level but I did score a few goals and if I would have scored a goal like this, I would have turned around and walked up to Federico Chiesa and said: ‘This goal is all about you, this is not about me.'”

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Chiesa, though, could now be granted more opportunities to win acclaim this season having belatedly been added to Liverpool’s Champions League squad following an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury to 18-year-old defender Giovanni Leoni. And few members of Slot’s squad will relate to Leoni’s anguish more than Chiesa himself, with the 27-year-old having ruptured his own ACL while playing for Juventus in 2022.

With that in mind, Chiesa will surely play a vital role in guiding his countryman through what is often a long and grueling rehabilitation process. Still, having endured a trying debut season at Anfield after joining Slot’s side from Juventus last summer, the forward’s Champions League redemption might just prove to be the spark that truly ignites his Liverpool career.

From Ballon d’Or prospect to the Juventus ‘bomb squad’

Chiesa is no stranger to pressure. His father, Enrico, was also a professional footballer, who represented a host of Serie A clubs and earned 17 caps for Italy. Education was integral to his upbringing: Chiesa was a pupil at the prestigious International School of Florence, where he learned to speak fluent English and harbored ambitions of becoming a physicist.

“My mom always told me: ‘If you have good grades at school, you will have good performances in football and if you have good performances in football then you will have good grades at school,'” Chiesa said in an interview with Daily Telegraph in 2021. “They are complementary. In the modern world, education is key. It helps you get through — with the media pressure in my case, for example, since I am a footballer. I am able to rationalize things. I can keep my head straight and focused on the real matters.”

Still, football remained Chiesa’s ultimate passion, and he began his youth career with local side US Settignanese in the northeast of Florence.

“He was a somewhat reserved child, but always alert on the pitch,” the club’s president, Maurizio Romei, told ESPN. “He was with us when he was very young, but already it was clear he had talent. He played on the wing with the same movements as his father.

“Much like Enrico, Federico would point at his man and then jump in a different direction. Like Enrico, he could also kick with his right and left foot. They have very similar characters and, above all, he has always listened to his father.”

After five years with Settignanese, Chiesa joined Fiorentina — the club his father had represented with great distinction from 1999-2002. He made his debut for the first team in a 2-1 defeat to Juventus in 2016, and went on to make more than 150 appearances for the club before joining Juventus on an initial two-year loan deal in 2020.

“He’s always had this confidence and exuberance in the way that he plays,” said ESPN senior writer Gabriele Marcotti. “A lot of young players in Italy are discouraged from being free, they get booed when they lose the ball and so on. He really stood out among Italian players when he came through because he wasn’t like that. I think he got that from his dad, who was a phenomenal player.”

In the summer of 2021, at the delayed Euro 2020, Chiesa followed in his father’s footsteps by scoring for Italy at a European Championship, netting first in the semifinals against Spain and scoring a crucial equalizer in the final against England, with Italy eventually winning the tournament on penalties.

“For Chiesa, meeting the high expectations will be extremely difficult, but I am convinced that he will succeed,” legendary Juventus midfielder Alessio Tacchinardi told Tuttosport in September 2021. “I have heard that in three or four years he can win the Ballon d’Or. I agree. I see the same poison in him that [Pavel] Nedved had inside. He has huge qualities. He can jump his marker left and right. Last year he touched the border of the top players. This year, he can surpass it.”

Just four months later, however, Chiesa sustained the ACL injury that would mark the beginning of the end of his time in Turin. Despite scoring nine goals in 33 Serie A appearances in 2023-24 — his best goal return in Juventus colors — the arrival of new head coach Thiago Motta in the summer of 2024 saw Chiesa relegated to the club’s “bomb squad” before he joined Liverpool for around €15 million on the eve of transfer deadline day.

“His injury history is pretty horrific, so I was surprised when Liverpool signed him, particularly as he is on significant wages,” Marcotti said. “Liverpool’s sporting director Richard Hughes grew up in Italy, so I think that helped facilitate the deal. At the time, Juventus were desperate for cash and towards the end of his time there, Chiesa was seen as someone who couldn’t be relied on. It made sense for Juve to move him on.”

Heroic Bournemouth cameo helped to turn the tide

Despite the underwhelming end to his time at Juventus, Chiesa arrived on Merseyside to considerable fanfare. He was Liverpool’s only summer arrival before the 2024-25 season — €30 million goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili was signed, but didn’t join from Valencia until this summer — and for such a low transfer fee (he had only 10 months left on his Juve deal), he was viewed as a low-risk, high-reward addition to the squad.

“Federico is at a really good age,” Slot said at the time. “He brings experience and talent, but at the same time he brings the potential to keep on getting better and this is something that really excites us.

“I have said all summer that it is not easy to sign players for Liverpool because the standard of players we have is so high, but in Federico I firmly believe we are signing someone who enhances what is already here. It’s not just his talents physically; Federico has experience of winning trophies, of course one with his national team, and dealing with setbacks and challenges. It’s the mentality we want here at Liverpool.”

In spite of that glowing endorsement, it quickly became clear that Chiesa did not feature prominently in Slot’s plans. His lack of fitness and match sharpness limited his first-team opportunities, and he played just 104 minutes in the Premier League last season, with his only start coming in a 3-2 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion after Liverpool had already clinched the trophy.

“While he can perform in different roles, a lot of his best work comes on the wing,” Marcotti said. “Last season, Liverpool had Mohamed Salah on one side and Cody Gakpo, who had an exceptional season, on the other and Luis Díaz as well. It wasn’t a surprise that Federico didn’t get many opportunities.”

According to Opta, 34% of Chiesa’s Serie A minutes for Juventus came as a striker, while 21% came in left midfield and 16% on the right. That versatility, though, did not help the forward establish himself in a squad that scored a league-high 86 goals on their way to the title.

“Last season, he rarely played on the wing,” Romei said. “I would say that if Liverpool give him trust and make him play on the wing, he has excellent prospects of success but if they are to make him play as a central striker, he will lose a lot of his value.”

While Chiesa spent most of last season on the fringes of the squad, his diligent attitude quickly endeared him to the Liverpool fanbase, who rewarded him with the ultimate honor of a terrace chant to the tune of Dean Martin’s “Sway.” It was that song that provided the soundtrack to Liverpool’s first win of the 2025-26 season, with Chiesa coming off the bench to score a superb late volley after the Reds’ had surrendered a 2-0 lead to AFC Bournemouth at Anfield.

Only weeks earlier, it had seemed like the Italian’s departure was a certainty after he was omitted from the squad for Liverpool’s preseason tour of Hong Kong and Japan, but his late heroics ensured the champions began their title defense with a priceless victory. It was Chiesa’s first Premier League goal, and as he celebrated wildly in front of a jubilant Kop, it was clear that all parties were keen to ensure that it would not be his last.

“Fede is an amazing character,” captain Virgil van Dijk said after the win. “It’s a reward for all the hard work since he joined the club.

“He’s been unlucky with injuries, but I’m really glad he could be important tonight. It’s not been an easy time for him, but we’re all here for him. We all know what kind of impact he can have, and I’m really pleased that he scored. He’s had some difficult moments, but he has great qualities. We all love him. He’s loved by the fans as well. When he can produce moments like this, it’s something we all want to see.”

Chiesa is “here to win”

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Gab and Juls discuss the impact of Giovanni Leoni’s ACL injury for Liverpool.

Chiesa’s match-winning cameo against Bournemouth prompted Slot to admit he had seen a “totally different Federico” to the one he had coached the season prior. After just seven matches in 2025-26, the forward has already managed nearly a third of the amount of minutes he recorded in the entirety of last term, with Slot turning to him off the bench in four of his team’s five Premier League games.

“What I always want to see is players that try to work hard,” Slot said after the 2-1 victory over Southampton. “So I said at half-time, for me it is completely not a coincidence that Federico picked the ball and assisted on the first [goal] because he was the one, in my opinion, that was most involved in the game, tried the most, worked the hardest. And then it wasn’t a coincidence again that he was the man that made a deep run [for the second goal].”

Of course, Slot’s decision to initially leave Chiesa out of the Champions League squad in favor of 17-year-old forward Rio Ngumoha suggests the Italy international still has some work to do to convince his head coach he can be trusted in the biggest games. But with Isak still getting up to speed and talisman Salah set to miss a chunk of the season while he represents Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations, Chiesa could now get the chance to show what he can do on the European stage.

“I play for a top club,” Chiesa said on Tuesday night. “This is maybe one of the top three in the world. It’s Liverpool. Of course they are going to sign top players; of course, the competition is high. If I don’t want competition, I go to another team. But I want the competition, I want to play here and I think, at the end of the day, competition helps you to become a better player.”

Ekitike’s impending suspension means Liverpool may need to call on Chiesa again when they take on unbeaten Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Saturday. The forward’s terrace chant asserts that he is “here to win,” and he now looks primed to help Slot’s side do exactly that.