THE TRUTH BEHIND LIVERPOOL’S €100M ALESSANDRO BASTONI BID RUMOUR

A number of reports are circulating that claim Liverpool are interested in signing Alessandro Bastoni, with suggestions that the Reds are even willing to pay €100m (£85.3m) for the 26-year-old Inter Milan centre-back.

The story has been widely repeated by BBC Sport and Sky Sports News, both of whom quoted Mundo Deportivo as their source. From there, the rumour exploded across X (formerly Twitter), picked up by countless aggregator accounts whose main goal is to farm engagement and clicks.

However, only KopTalk has taken the time to trace the origin of the story—and the truth is rather different from how it’s been presented elsewhere.

Our investigation shows that Mundo Deportivo didn’t publish a dedicated article or an exclusive about Bastoni at all. The mention appeared only in their generic live transfer rumours page, buried among dozens of other speculative notes. Moreover, Mundo Deportivo themselves had actually sourced the claim from Italian outlet Il Giorno but failed to credit them.

The original Il Giorno piece reported that Liverpool are preparing a €100m bid for Bastoni, viewing him as a potential long-term successor to Virgil van Dijk amid ongoing uncertainty over Ibrahima Konaté’s contract and Giovanni Leoni’s injury. This was the first notable appearance of the rumour in mainstream media, and it quickly spread across X and other aggregator websites.

Spanish outlet Fichajes.net—known for its quantity rather than quality of transfer reports—also published the same claim later that day, but again it simply repeated Il Giorno’s story rather than uncovering anything new.

When it comes to football transfer news, especially involving Italian clubs, Il Giorno’s reputation is mixed at best. The paper, based in Milan, covers Serie A extensively and has a respected sports supplement, but it is also part of the Italian press landscape where transfer sensationalism is common.

According to fan-maintained reliability rankings widely used in online football communities, Il Giorno sits in Tier 4 – Unreliable for transfer news. This tier includes the likes of Corriere dello Sport and Il Messaggero, both known for publishing unverified speculation. Tier 1 outlets represent elite journalists with consistent accuracy, while Tier 4 is typically reserved for media that prioritise clickbait over substance.

Despite that, English-language outlets such as Sky Sports and ESPN often recycle stories from Il Giorno when covering Italian football. It’s a common industry practice: treat them as a starting point, not as gospel. In this instance, though, Mundo Deportivo was credited instead—masking where the story truly began.

In short: while Il Giorno is fine for local football coverage, its transfer rumours require a heavy dose of scepticism. Always cross-check with higher-tier sources before believing claims of massive bids.

Would Liverpool like a player of Bastoni’s calibre? Of course. But at this stage, there’s no credible evidence that the club is preparing such a move.

Aggregator websites and social media accounts thrive on engagement, not accuracy. KopTalk, on the other hand, tracks every claim back to its origin so that Liverpool supporters get facts, not fiction.

So the next time you see Bastoni linked with Liverpool, you’ll know exactly where it started—and how a rumour from a Tier 4 Italian newspaper snowballed into headlines from Sky Sports, the BBC, and ESPN.

Big brands might have glossy studios and big names, but when it comes to transfer talk, they can be just as guilty of passing along unverified gossip as the so-called ITKs on social media.

KopTalk will keep doing the legwork—so you don’t have to.