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Liverpool were reportedly in the market for another first team quality goalkeeper to compete with Simon Mignolet during the January transfer window. However, the club elected to stick with what they had and have been rewarded with a strong run of form from Mignolet over the past two months. Some believe that Liverpool will still pursue a goalkeeper this summer, and a player that has been mentioned often in connection to the job is 22-year-old Marco Sportiello of Atalanta.
Sportiello has broken out this season, keeping seven clean sheets in 26 league starts for a team that is hovering around the relegation zone in Serie A. His play has caught the eye of some of Europe's top clubs, and he is quite aware of the attention.
"Liverpool are definitely a great club," Sportiello told Italian newspaper L'Eco di Bergamo. "We are talking about one of the top clubs in the world."
"However, I am happy to be here," he explained. "This is my first year as a starter and I recently signed a new contract with Atalanta."
Sportiello seems intent on developing further at the club that he grew up playing with (he's a graduate of the Atalanta youth system), and who can really blame him for that? If he continues to impress, he'll still have plenty of teams lining up for his signature when he is ready to move on. Whether one of those teams will be Liverpool is something that remains to be seen, as the club could very well commit to Mignolet as their long term goalkeeper if he continues to play well down the stretch this season.
