Former Liverpool target who Jurgen Klopp contacted set to sign for Inter Milan for free

Former Liverpool target Piotr Zielinski is nearing a move to join Inter Milan, some eight years after he was close to moving to Merseyside.

Zielinski, 29, has developed into a very astute, experienced and reliable figure for club and country across the past eight years as he has developed from talented youngster to one of Napoli's best and most consistent performers. His current deal is set to expire in the summer and he would have been under consideration for a whole host of European clubs, but Inter seem to be his future destination.

According to Fabrizio Romano, a deal is close for the Polish international to join in the summer and the club are also looking at Porto forward Mehdi Taremi, as he revealed the details on X, 'Inter are closing in on verbal agreement with Piotr Zielinski to join as free agent from July 1. Contract almost ready, final details being sorted. Inter hope to get documents signed this month. Same for Mehdi Taremi, almost done — as revealed.

It means Inter have now sourced out £30m's worth of players that include Marcus Thuram, Benjamin Pavard, Yann Aurel Bisseck, Piotr Zielinski, Medhi Taremi for a combined £30m, showing how you can still challenge while on a shoestring budget brilliantly. In terms of the history of Zielinski and Liverpool, things could have been very different; Liverpool were competing with Napoli for the 21-year-old Udinese midfielder at the time and even had a bid of £11.7m rejected. On top of that, the player revealed that Klopp had reached out to him, in an attempt to seal the deal, he said: “There is a lot of truth in [talk of] the interest of [Liverpool manager] Jürgen Klopp in me. There was contact, I do not deny that.”

2016 was Klopp's first full summer window in charge of the club and this is where he laid down some of the most crucial foundations for the club's successes to come. Out went Christian Benteke, Jordon Ibe, Joe Allen, Luis Alberto, Brad Smith, Martin Skrtel and the enigmatic Mario Ballotelli and in came the key trio of Sadio Mane, Georginio Wijnaldum and Joel Matip.

Zielinski opted to join Napoli and has since gone onto make 355 appearances, netting 50 times and providing 46 assists in total and has won the Serie A and Italian Cup. He even netted twice in the Champions League against Liverpool in the group stages of the 2022/23 campaign.