De Laurentiis: ‘I would like to sign an American and Japanese player’

Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis gave a lengthy interview to La Repubblica in which he announced he would like to sign an American and Japanese player. The Partenopei patron has helped assemble a title winning squad on a budget, despite losing experienced veterans last summer, including Lorenzo Insigne and Kalidou Koulibaly. Speaking with La Repubblica, De Laurentiis insisted that he has no desire to lose any of his title-winning squad, rather, he would prefer to continue to build the team to make it a more internationally appealing squad:

“I would like to add more players. I would like to have an American, because in America even if the league is worth little, there are great players who shine in the national team. And then a Japanese, already having a Korean in the team, since there is a great development of our football in the East and there are new names to consider. But I wouldn’t want to send any of our players away.”

“The Scudetto? Things had happened with Ancelotti and Gattuso that had not convinced me, so I finally got rid of all those players that I found a bit unmotivated and could not take me where I wanted. I felt I needed new air. And we had already identified Kvaratskhelia three years ago in Georgia, but it was the Covid period, we had lost €258 million, they were asking for a lot of money. Then he changed agents and Giuntoli was very good at bringing him home for €11 million. Osimhen had a chance to recover physically: many times we had him at only half capacity.”

“Spalletti? I have been following him since he was in Russia, many times I called him to bring him to Naples. One fine day I went to see him in Milan at the vertical forest, he came very timorously to the garage not to be seen, with a hood over his head, and dragged me into his apartment. I told him, “I don’t know if I will go on with Gattuso, you be ready.” He replied, “President, I’ll come in June but I don’t feel like it now.” I insisted, “No, if I have problems and I decide to fire Gattuso right away, you must promise me that you will make yourself available.” He gave me his hand, then there was no need to make a running change, we waited until the end of the season.”