Napoli, De Laurentiis: No rift with Conte, backing him to win | OneFootball

Naples, De Laurentiis: "No friction with Conte, I bet everything on his ability to win! On Kvara and Osimhen…”

Aurelio De Laurentiis, president of Naples, gave a long interview to the magazine Sette de Il Corriere della Sera.

The first meeting with Conte

"To see the complete picture, we need to start from farther away, from the choice of taking a tough coach like Conte. Many years ago, I met him in the Maldives. He was on vacation with Elisabetta, his wife, and Vittoria, their daughter. We spent a few days swimming and discussing football. He explained his way of working, and I was fascinated by the rigor that drove him. A workaholic like me. It's clear that we're both in love with what we do, and this is a fundamental aspect for me. Like attention to detail. When the square last year rightly asked for Garcia's dismissal, it was November, I invited Antonio to lunch at my house and offered him to take over. But he, with intellectual honesty and the rigor I mentioned, replied that his desire was to come to Naples, but in June, when together we would rebuild the team. And so it was."

What happened after the championship win?

"The match against Cagliari decreed the title on Friday, the 23rd. On Saturday and Sunday, we went to Ischia with Conte and his family to celebrate my 76th birthday. On Monday, the 26th, there was the wonderful parade on the waterfront, which in an hour and a half collected over 70 million spectators worldwide on Rai Italia, the international channel bouquet. In the evening, there was a party for the whole Naples team, and the next day we went to the Pope for the first official audience of his pontificate. Immediately after, we locked ourselves in a room, I, him, Chiavelli, and Manna, and we started laying the foundations for the new season. Without needing to say anything else."

Which player do you feel most connected to over all these years?

"Hamsik was the polar star of Naples. One day, he came to tell me that he wanted to change teams, he wanted to go to China. Marek, however, asked me... I don't know how to explain it... like a Neapolitan, that's it. You should see the football school he opened in Slovakia. He brought Naples to his home. Of my players, he's the one I'm most fond of."

Last season with Conte, there were also frictions. For example, in January, when he sold Kvaratskhelia without replacing him.

"No friction. I had to do it. No one could replace Kvara equally, but we tried: PSV, for example, didn't give us Noa Lang, fortunately, in the summer, he was convinced. Moreover, if the January market is called a repair market, a player of Kvara's level at mid-season, you can't buy. Given this, I was aware that Conte, focused on the fight to reach as high as possible, would struggle to accept the operation. Let's say I bet on his ability to win anyway, and it was a good bet."

Why did you have to sell Kvara in January?

"Because his agent threatened to appeal to Article 17 of the FIFA regulations. The story needs to be explained. After the Georgian's first, fantastic season, we immediately worried about negotiating a contract renewal, improving his salary, and offering him a very important figure, because it was obvious that the limited compensation would have attracted half the world ready to offer him golden bridges. But his agent, Mamuka Jugeli, had other projects for himself and the player. He wanted to tear a very high commission from another club for himself, in addition to a double-digit salary for Kvara. At the end of the second contractual year, there was the European Championship in Germany. Manna, Chiavelli, and I flew to Düsseldorf to resolve the issue, but Mamuka continued to take time, claiming that Giuntoli had promised him money that had not been paid. A lie, it wasn't difficult to verify. I should have sold him then, PSG had offered over 200 million for the Kvara-Osimhen package. But I had promised Conte to keep him, and I didn't feel like it."

How would you have used all that money?

«The idea was to take Gyokeres».

What does Article 17 say to make the sale so pressing?

"It's an article that allows a player to leave his contract after three years by paying a compensation measured on his compensation and the money spent on the card. Being two low figures, the compensation would have been negligible compared to the player's value. In practice, this summer we would have lost him almost for free."

And what about Osimhen?

"We sold him to Galatasaray for 75 million plus bonuses. And with mutual satisfaction."

Carlo Gioia

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.