Andrea Manciniformer sporting director of Sampdoria, now at Barcelona, knows Giovanni Leoni well and commented on his move to Parma: “I think Leoni can become one of the best central defenders in Italy. A very good guy with his head on his shoulders. He still doesn’t understand the qualities he has. The day we took him to Padua, I had already seen him a month and a half before. I called Mirabelli on December 28, he had asked me for Delle Monache. Leoni is a safe investment: if today you can sell him for 8-9 million, at the end of the season he could be worth even 20 million. He will be 18 years old. A very important player. It would have been nice to see him still at Samp, Parma have made a great purchase”, he told Tuttosport.
What does it mean to work for Barcelona?
“There is no better club in the world, for how they work. It is a satisfaction to be in a company where a boy goes through the whole process from the Under 10 to the first team. Every year 3-4 players make it. Iniesta, Xavi, Pujol and Piquè were from the youth team. Now there are Yamal, Gavi, Cubarsì and also other boys like Bernal, a 2007 who plays in front of the defence, and Marc Casado, a strong midfielder, also a starter in the match against Valencia. And there is Guille Fernandez, a 2008 from Barcelona B, a midfielder who has already made the retreat in the first team”.
So are second teams useful?
“Yes, absolutely. Barcelona B plays in the third division, they are all boys between 2007 and 2009. It’s an investment that you find in the future. You know how the boys train, something too important. Often and willingly in Italy a bad choice of a loan is enough and a boy can be lost. It’s no coincidence that today the most interesting young players come from Juventus and Atalanta”.