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Off the pitch it is evident that Liverpool target Fabio Borini is still a very young man. Reserved and softly spoken, his mannerisms regularly betray him revealing a nervous edge. Looking away as he answers his questions, his personal life guarded with ferociousness.

On the field however, we see the other side of the hungry striker. “I like his anger,” Carlo Ancelotti grinned as he described the young Italian he used to manage at Chelsea. “His meanness, and his desire to always be the first on the ball.”

As a player, Borini is the poster child for dedication and commitment. For him, football is simply not a game to enjoy but rather a profession to master. It is this precise determination to succeed that has seen Borini establish himself both at club and international level. Perhaps the precise reason why, as a youngster, he often deliberated over his decision to be a footballer. How much will he have to sacrifice to be the very best?

Born into a family of athletes, Borini knew he had to be a sportsman. His father Roberto ran the 400 metres races at an amateur level, his sister Gloria was a long jumper whilst his mother Cynthia regularly partook in marathons. Sport was the answer and Fabio entered the world of football becoming a youth product of Bologna, the football club he and his family supported.

(Image: Getty)

Determined but rarely spectacular, Borini always played alongside someone who appeared to be better than him. Yet despite his relative mediocrity, it was difficult to ignore his predatory nature and his instinct for goal. So much so that Chelsea came knocking.

Leaving his country and his family behind, Borini came to England and the sacrifices for his profession had begun. He often spoke of loneliness, of the difficulty in settling into a country he felt to be so different to his own but gradually he began to enjoy it. He took up cooking lessons, trained heavily and quickly became the first choice striker for the Chelsea reserve team before scoring 10 goals in 11 games the next year to finish as top scorer.

Borini's eye for a goal and his great finishing demanded attention. “At Chelsea, Ancelotti defined me as a nuisance like [Filippo] Inzaghi,” he recalls. Displaying the same hunger for goal and the same lethality in the box, Borini was a little Inzaghi but to describe his as just a goal scorer is simply an injustice.

Tactically flexible, the ex-Chelsea player can play any position in attack, on the left, through the middle or on the right. He can play as the centre forward or as a second striker as he can exploit his pace and willingness to uncover space when deployed in a more withdrawn role. Additionally, his sacrificial nature sees him eager to provide for the side when out of possession whilst statistically, he produced more tackles than any other attacking player for Roma last season.

(Image: Getty)

His overall game combined with his intensity intrigued Ancelotti, who offered him the chance to form part of Chelsea’s Champions League squad. The Italian Coach always smiled when he recalled the boy, explaining to la Gazzetta dello Sport how the 17-year-old ordered his teammates to turn off the stereo that was pumping rap music, as it always did before every game. “I need silence to concentrate!”

It’s perhaps interesting to note than when asked what was the most important lesson he learned as a young footballer, Borini replied: “In the locker room, the newcomer should always be quiet. In the beginning I used to just say what I thought.”

The striker was loaned out to Swansea where he scored six goals in 12 matches, Parma than decided to bring Borini back to Italy in the summer of 2011 before loaning him out to Roma, who had just embarked on a new project with Luis Enrique at the helm.

Under the Spaniard, Borini developed his game even further and, despite fierce competition from Roma’s vast array of attacking talent, the young striker grabbed the many chances he was offered to exhibit his talent. His undeniable technique, his work off the ball and his pressing game proved invaluable for Roma and his devastating performances against Claudio Ranieri’s Inter side and Palermo allowed his team to accumulate much needed points at a time in which they were fighting for a spot in Europe.

So what can he bring to Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool side? Fiercely competitive and eager to impose himself, Borini is curiously calm under pressure and hardly ever intimidated regardless of the amount of stars he has played alongside. Aware of his quality, his insatiable right foot and the ability to score goals, he finished last season as Roma’s second highest goal-scorer.

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Despite his many qualities, though, Borini is very much a boy whose talents require refinement. The easiest Roma player to be dispossessed, he struggles for control at times and his natural inclination to always play the ball to feet makes has seen him fail in his attempts to provide crosses to the middle. Curiously Liverpool were statistically the most successful side in the Premier League last season in terms of crossing ability but Rodgers’ Swansea side were one of the poorest.

What Liverpool can expect, should they manage to complete the deal, is a team player and a model professional. Borini may be reserved off the pitch and uninterested in joining his teammates on nights out but on the pitch, he will do all he can to provide them with what they need to drive their team forward.

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