@Stinley I doubt that, it’s simply a matter of mental habits.
If he’s used to english he’s starting at a disadvantage, because english has a much more flexible and simple structure (which to me is a good thing) while italian has a strict and highly contingence based structure.
English, for instance, has no clear distinction between nouns adjectives and verbs, italian has a very marked distinction and some of the related terms don’t even sound alike. And then there is the whole problem of nouns always having a gender.
To me, english looks easy, because i can just dispense with most of my mental habits, english speakers on the other hand need to pick those habits up to speak italian, which is way harder.
That said nobody’s preventing him from trying, though he would be much better off learning a language that has actual use, like french, german, spanish, japanese, chinese, whatever and not italian which is only used in italy where there is very little to do aside for sightseeing.