Failed Wonderkid #13- Nicola Leali

Biodata

Full Name: Nicola Leali

Nationality: Italian

Date of Birth: 17 February 1993

Position: Goalkeeper

Current Club: Ascoli (on loan from Perugia)

Current Market Price: 1.40mil Euro (Updated on Dec 2019)

Highest Market Price: 6.00mil Euro (Jan 2015)

Former Clubs:

2010- 2012 Brescia

2012- 2018 Juventus

2012- 2013 Virtus Lanciano (loan)

2013- 2014 Spezia (loan)

2014- 2015 Cesena (loan)

2015- 2016 Frosinone (loan)

2016- 2017 Olympiacos (loan)

2017- 2018 Zulte Waregem (loan)

2018 Perugia (loan)

2018- Perugia

2019 Foggia (loan)

International Career:

None

Achievement:

None

Career

Italian football is always well known for its strength in the defensive unit. This nation had produced a lot of defensive talent throughout the years such as Dino Zoff, Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini and Gianluigi Buffon. Therefore, there were be a lot of defensive talent that comes out from the Italian league that grace the football pitch. Unfortunately, there will be some players whose appearance was limited by the overloaded talent in this nation. This includes the main character of this article.

Nicola Leali began his youth career in his hometown club, Brescia Calcio and played for the Brescia Primavera from 2009 to 2011. He began his professional career in 2010 after being called up to the first team for the first time in 2010 and earned his Serie A debut for the club in the following year. After Brescia was relegated from Serie A in 2011, he began the new season as the club’s first-choice keeper at the age of 18. However, his place was soon replaced by Michele Arcari at the second half of the 2011-2012 season. Despite he lost his place in the second half of the season, Leali still managed to register 4 clean sheets in 16 games played in that season. He also managed to register a 70.5% save percentage as a young goalkeeper too. These sort of performance that let Leali heavily linked with a transfer to another Italian team.

In June 2012, Juventus came calling and sealed the transfer for a fee of 3.8mil Euro. However, Leali was one of the victims of the longevity of Gianluigi Buffon’s career in Juventus as he was almost immediately loaned out to another Serie B side, Virtus Lanciano on a one-year basis. His spell in Virtus Lanciano was not fruitful either. Leali only managed to keep 6 clean sheets and conceded 51 goals in just 37 games played in Serie B as Virtus Lanciano only managed to stay in 17th place in Serie B. On July 2013, Leali was loaned out again to another Serie B side, this time to Spezia Calcio with an option to buy. His performance in Spezia was improved has his Save percentage was improved from 66.9% to 72.1%. Leali also managed to keep 11 clean sheets in 38 games played in the league. Despite his improvement, Spezia didn’t exercise the buyout option after his loan spell ended.

In 2014, Leali signed a new 5-year contract with his parent club Juventus. However, the existence of Buffon in the team means he still couldn’t break into the Juventus first-team squad. He was then loaned out again to Cesena at the 2014-2015 season and Frosinone at the 2015-2016 season. In these two years, Leali failed to prove himself that he had the ability to replace Buffon in his parent club as both Cesena and Frosinone were relegated at the respective seasons. In the 2016-2017 season, Leali gets his move abroad as he joined Olympiakos on a season-long loan with a 3mil buyout clause. He was appointed as the goalkeeper that will play in UEFA games and Greek Cup as Stefanos Kapino will be concentrated on the league games. His performance in Greece was decent but his best-remembered game in Greece was sweet though. Leali was the scapegoat that cost Olympiakos a place in Europa League quarterfinals place. He was responsible for his team’s elimination against Besiktas due to at least 3 serious errors. Olympiakos did not practice their buyout option and Leali was once again going back to Turin.

Leali spent half more season out on loan to the Belgian side, Zulte Waregem, in which his performance was below impressive too. On January 2018, Leali joined Serie B side Perugia on loan for the remainder of the season with the obligation to sign at the end of the season. He helped Perugia to an 8th place finish in Serie B with 72.2% save percentage. At the end of the season, Leali signed a contract which would last until June 2021. On January 2019, Leali joined Foggia on loan until the remainder of the season, in which he helped Foggia to prevent relegation. He spent the current season out on loan to Ascoli too, which currently sits in the 9th place of Serie B at the time of writing.

Verdict

Disappointment Rate: 7.5/10. Lack of playing time is always a con for a youngster when they choose to join a big club. Leali career was not taking off as he planned to be the heir of Gianluigi Buffon in club and country. However, still only 26 years old, he still has the chance to return to the top level of football since goalkeeper has a longer career timeline compared to the other position.