Rumour Mongering: Fenerbahce Target Liverpool Winger Federico Chiesa

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The 27-year-old winger has failed to cement his place at Liverpool as the 2024-25 season winds down, leading to rumours of a summer departure.

Last summer, Liverpool surprised many when they moved to secure Federico Chiesa, signing the 27-year-old from Juventus. A few seasons previous, the idea Juventus would have been a willing seller—for £10M no less—would have been difficult to believe.

Chiesa, though, had struggled with injuries for a few years, and the winger at one time considered Italy’s best was no longer in their plans. Which left Liverpool sensing a chance to make a gamble on what might turn out to be a now massively under-valued talent.

Deep into his first season with the Reds, and even acknowledging Chiesa was likely always going to need time to build up his fitness with his new club, it doesn’t look like a gamble that has paid off for the club or player, and the winger’s minutes have remained limited.

Now, rumour mongers out of Turkey are claiming he’s a summer target for Fenerbahce, with manager Jose Mourinho personally seeking his signing. One would have to wonder, though, whether Chiesa is prepared to move to the Turkish league at this stage in his career.

While his career trajectory hasn’t matched what most would have expected going back four or five years, he’s still in the thick of his prime years as a footballer, and even if he decides he doesn’t have a future at Liverpool a return to Italy seems a more appealing option.

On that front, there were January rumours of Lazio interest but the Reds weren’t seeking to make sales in the middle of what at the time appeared a title race and Chiesa still wanted to see if he could convince manager Arne Slot he deserved a larger role with Liverpool.

While it’s not entirely outside the realm of possibility he might yet do that, with six games to play in the 2024-25 season time is running out and we may well have reached the point where Chiesa moving on after just one season at the club makes sense for everybody.