Federico Chiesa Excluded from Liverpool's Champions League Squad
Federico Chiesa has been dealt another brutal European setback. Liverpool have confirmed their Champions League squad for the league phase – and the Italian winger is not on it.
Manager Andoni Iraola has left Chiesa out of his list, with Wataru Endo also omitted as the club locked in its roster for the months ahead. For a player who arrived on Merseyside with the pedigree and expectation that Chiesa carried, the snub cuts deep.
A familiar frustration
This is not a new story for him. Last season, Chiesa also found himself watching from the outside when the Champions League squad was first submitted. He only forced his way back into the European picture when Giovanni Leoni suffered a serious long-term injury, opening a slot late in the campaign.
Even then, his continental involvement never truly caught fire. There was that debut off the bench in Italy in September 2024, a brief taste of the stage he once lit up in Juventus colours, coming after his £10m initial move to Anfield. It hinted at a new chapter. It has not yet become one.
Now, as Liverpool gear up for another demanding run through Europe’s elite competition, Chiesa again finds himself shut out of the main event.
Ruthless competition at Anfield
Iraola’s call underlines how ruthless the internal battle for places has become after a sweeping rebuild of the squad. Every position is contested. Every registration slot is a political decision as much as a tactical one.
Liverpool are stretched across multiple fronts, with domestic and European ambitions running in parallel. The Champions League rules offer no room for sentiment. Numbers matter. Balance matters. And in this calculation, Chiesa and Endo have fallen on the wrong side of the line.
The message is clear: reputation alone no longer guarantees a European ticket at Anfield.
Domestic stage or bust
For Chiesa, the path is now narrow but obvious. With his Champions League route blocked for the time being, his season must run through the training ground and the domestic calendar.
Every session becomes an argument. Every league and cup appearance, a trial. He has to convince Iraola that when the next opportunity arises – and in a campaign of this intensity, it usually does – his name should be the first considered, not the first sacrificed.
Liverpool’s schedule offers little breathing room. The fixtures pile up, and on January 19 comes a marquee Champions League clash with Inter, a night that would have carried a special edge for an Italian forward desperate to prove himself on that stage. Instead, he will be reduced to spectator status, watching his teammates step into the spotlight he once expected to share.
Injuries can change everything, as last season showed. A door can swing open in an instant. The question now is simple: when it does, will Federico Chiesa have done enough in the shadows to make walking through it impossible for Liverpool to ignore?
