The 22-year-old has spent the season at Spezia where he made 34 appearances for a club which had been promoted in 2020. It was Ampadu’s second consecutive season in the Italian top flight having been at Venezia the year before.

Spezia finished this season 18th out of the 20 teams but with Hellas Verona above them ending on the same points, under Serie A rules that meant a one-off match to decide who went down, played on a neutral ground.

Verona took the lead early on but Ampadu, who almost cleared that shot off the line, levelled 15 minutes in with a strike from outside the area that flew high into the net via a deflection. However their opponents established a two-goal lead by half-time.

Spezia then had a penalty saved in the second half, Verona also having a player sent off, before Ampadu went very close to a second goal. His attempt to find the top corner clipped the top of the crossbar. 3-1 was the final score.

In another decider at the weekend, Romelu Lukaku came on early in the second half in the Champions League final but his loan club Inter Milan went down 1-0 to Manchester City. The striker had one of the chances to equalise but saw his close-range header saved by Ederson.

Both Lukaku and Ampadu will join up with their respective nations for European Championship qualifiers this month, with Belgium taking on Austria and Estonia, and Wales to play Armenia and Turkey.