Daniele Paponi spent his entire playing career in Italy, barring the loan spell he had with Montreal Impact in 2013.
Having come up through the ranks of Parma’s youth system in 2005, he caught the attention of a few top flight clubs, including Liverpool.
At the age of 18, when he was playing in Serie A, the forward’s performances attracted interest from the Merseyside club’s scouts.
That’s according to La Repubblica, via Tutto Bari, who even add the Reds ‘tried to take him to England’ more than a decade ago.
The Premier League side were left surprised with his ‘somewhat astounding’ rejection to make a switch to Anfield. The report suggests the the player’s ‘football history would have been very different’, if he had accepted the opportunity to join Liverpool.
Paponi struggled to find his way at Parma and after a few loan spells, he left them for Bologna in 2010. Things didn’t change for him at Bologna and disappointing performances saw him end up in the lower tiers of Italian football.
Since 2015, he has had spells with Latina, Juve Stabia, Piacenza and Padova. He joined Serie C side Bari in the summer.
In March 2020, Paponi had also admitted he was wrong to turn down Liverpool earlier in his career, and regrets that decision.
