NOT many players can say Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool all wanted to sign them – but Piotr Zielinski can.
From the VIP treatment at Jurgen Klopp‘s house to Bruno Fernandes begging him to move to Old Trafford, the midfielder is used to a convincing sales pitch.
But despite several chances to move to the Premier League, Zielinski has always felt his home was in Italy.
The Poland star was just 14 when Bayer Leverkusen and Liverpool were keen on him.
But he did not want to leave his homeland and decided to stay put.
Eventually, he went to Udinese in 2011 and Serie A has been his playground ever since.
The 30-year-old joined Napoli five years later and went on to play 364 times for the club, winning the league title there in the 2022/23 season.
He joined Inter Milan in the summer – but some of the world’s biggest clubs chased his signature during his time in Udine and Naples.
He told the Foot Truck podcast: “At one time, Fernandes wanted me to end up at Manchester United.
“We are still in touch and we talk quite often. We played together at Udinese and in one of the matches we practically single-handedly beat Milan.
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“Liverpool sent a private jet to Florence for me and I flew with my agent Bartlomiej Bolek.
“We drove up to Klopp’s house afterwards, we had a great conversation. It was the first time I had flown like that.
“He said that for him I was a mix of Ilkay Gundogan and Cesc Fabregas.
“We watched a Premier League match at his place on his giant TV, I had never seen anything like that either.”
Arsenal and Barcelona were also once interested, with his move to Spain not materialising because Napoli demanded players in a swap deal.
And when his contract running down in 2022, West Ham tried to sign him before they ended up with Lucas Paqueta.
Zielinski revealed: “It was also close, Napoli were already convinced about the offer, they threw in £30million.
“They were already looking around for medical care for my wife and child and where I was going to live.
“But Luciano Spalletti took me aside and asked me what was going on and I said I would rather stay to fight for the title.
“He said I want you to stay and I stayed because I did not really feel London either.”
