Agent on Di Lorenzo-Inter talks and Napoli rejected 30m Chelsea offer | OneFootball

Agent Mario Giuffredi confirms Inter was ‘the first club to call’ Giovanni Di Lorenzo this summer, but Matteo Politano and Michael Folorunsho are staying at Napoli, who turned down ‘over €30m’ from Chelsea for Elseid Hysaj.

It was a chaotic summer for the Partenopei, who went from the highs of the Scudetto to the lows of 10th place and not even qualifying for any European competition.

During that time, captain Di Lorenzo put in a transfer request and spent several weeks pushing for a departure before he was convinced to change his mind by coach Antonio Conte and President Aurelio De Laurentiis.

Di Lorenzo, Politano, Folorunsho and Hysaj received offers to quit Napoli

“Inter was the first club to call and show interest in Di Lorenzo this summer,” agent Giuffredi told Radio CRC.

“Giovanni was always happy to remain at Napoli, but the situation in the summer disturbed us, because he felt mistreated. A player seeing himself treated like that at the first sign of difficulty, that is going to hurt both him and me. However, I want to clarify, Di Lorenzo always wanted to stay at Napoli.”

The same is true of Politano, who had been linked with the exit several times in recent years.

“Politano wanted to remain at Napoli and we lost a lot of money because of that, but we’re still happy. He is one of the few who actually did well last season.”

Midfielder Folorunsho went from a member of the Italy squad at EURO 2024 to being left in the stands by Napoli amid negotiations with Atalanta and then his hometown club Lazio.

“Folorunsho renewed his contract because the coach was focused on him. The President did what the coach asked. Then the situation was dealt with badly by me and by (director of sport Giovanni) Manna.

“An important proposal arrived from Atalanta and Napoli were struggling to sell players. I liked the idea he could be coached by Gian Piero Gasperini, so me and Manna dealt with that, without telling the player or the coach. It was a mistake, but I can assure you, he will remain at Napoli until June!”

Giuffredi’s links with Napoli go back a long way to the Maurizio Sarri days and he reveals there was a huge deal with Chelsea that never went through.

“Chelsea offered a big sum for Hysaj, over €30m. However, Sarri wanted to keep him and demanded that he stayed at Napoli.”

Instead, Sarri moved to Chelsea and now Hysaj is playing for Lazio.