Napoli President Aurelio de Laurentiis has vowed never to sign another African player unless a promise is made not to take part in the Africa Cup of Nations.
According to Football Italia, De Laurentiis made this known at a live-streamed event.
The 73-year-old’s comment may not be unconnected to Super Eagles striker Victor Osimhen’s frequent national team duties.
Last season, Osimhen suffered a serious fracture to his face following a collision with Inter‘s Milan Skrinier and had to undergo surgery.
He also tested positive for COVID-19 but came out to declare himself fit for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon early this year but did not eventuality feature.
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The Serie A club has just two Africans currently in their squad, Osimhen and Cameroon star André-Frank Zambo Anguissa.
Senegal skipper, Kalidou Koulibaly recently joined Chelsea after spending eight years at Napoli.
However Anguissa and Koulibaly represented their countries with the latter leading Senegal to a first ever AFCON title.
And fielding questions at the live-steamed event, De Laurentiis said:“I told them, lads, don’t talk to me about Africans anymore.
“I love them, but either they sign something confirming they’ll back out of playing the Africa Cup of Nations, or otherwise between that tournament, the World Cup qualifiers in South America, these players are never available!”
“We are the idiots who pay salaries only to send them all over the world playing for others,” De Laurentiis said.
Napoli club lawyer, Mattia Grassani, had stated back in December in reaction to the COVID outbreak that the club will take legal actions to ‘protect their players’ after Osimhen declared himself fit and available to represent Nigeria at the AFCON.
“Considering the epidemiological situation, there could be legal action, because this tournament (AFCON) takes away valuable resources from the clubs,” Grassani said last year in reaction to the COVID19 outbreak.
“It is a particular historic moment, so it would be different if we felt 99 per cent confident of the situation. The clubs invested a lot of money for signing players like Victor Osimhen, so if he were to become infected, that’d be tough to deal with.
“The first step would be legal action to prevent the call-up, then if there were concrete elements to sue because the health standards are not the same as in European competitions, then there could be more appeals to gain an exemption for Europe-based players.”
15 Comments
This is why African should do everything possible to schedule nations cup to between June and July.
By now weather shouldn’t be a barrier to us anymore. Yet another mistake has been made by moving next year own to January 2024.
By this period clubs all over uerope will not want to release players for this game. Bulk of Africans players coming to this tournament now are mostly foreign base players. Taking them all out of their clubs at the middle of season may mar the performance of their clubs for the rest of the season.
Moreover these clubs pay their bills so they have a say whether or no wether.
@Yinkus.
Thanks. Why on earth the Africans can’t schedule the AFCON to meet the summer holidays in Europe which will free the required players to participate in AFCON.
The Napoli Club owner is speaking on behalf of all the European Clubs. The Africans should better listen.
Pulling players out of their clubs duty in the middle of season is a bad ideal, I don’t care wether FIFA support players to honour national invitation or not.
For just qaulifier is understandable because one week shouldn’t be an issue. But for players to be pulled out for four weeks out of his club may affect the chances of club for that season.
Jose morinho was a victim of this when he was in Chelsea. When drogba, Solomon, Michael, Mikel and this cameron defender had to leave club duty to honour their
respective county invitation.
Morinho beg uefa authority to suspend league because of this.
Caf should wake up, at this 21ist century, weather shouldn’t be a barrier anymore.
you are very correct my friend, i know when they move to january again is going to be backfire ,useless caf ,you can play it in cover stadium or if you dont have money to cover the stadium bloody play it somewhere else where is not rainning season in june.
Funny enough, they come, play in the tournament and then retire back to their clubs
At club levels, they become relegated, facing the challenges of honouring the call to service.
All the European clubs say this things behind close doors I can respect the Napoli president for boldly speaking to the press CAF should do everything possible to change the AFCON calendar so as to make everyone happy. Napoli were in a better position to win the scudetto last season but they lost some of there best players during AFCON.
The womens AFCON was played in June/July no problem.
The ppl in CAF have block heads
The tournament was in morocco. that period they are still experiencing summer in west Africa and most of sub- Saharan Africa, June-July is the peak of rainy season. The only way out is for Caf to have the tournament rotated among regions based on two season calenders. in West Africa January and innorth Africa (june -july) that way the europeans will see at least in four years they only get to loose this players for the 1 month period when it is stage by a west African or sub saharan africam country. do not mind this europeans they are just hypocrites, how much do they pay for this highly under priced Africans, you say you spend alot for them yet you do not pay them much because they are Africans
Your comment is the most sensible on this topic… Some are blaming African federations for not building stadiums like in Qatar that can arrest adverse weather… Nigeria wey be our country we get up to 3standard stadium?
@Jimmy that is why you must not stop telling your FA and the CAF the truth. If Nigeria doesn’t have half good stadium that is still not an excuse for CAF not to be sensitive as per what time of the season afcon should hold.
@Yinkus… I feel you. I wish we had stadia like in SA and North Africa. But we should stop dreaming because with leaders like Buhari who just bought ten luxurious SUV worth 1.4Billion to fight terrorism they created in the first place… How can we get good stadia?
Well said Brotherman. Rotating basis is the best way. Lolzzzz ZA Zip ZA Zip
I concur with Jimmy Ball, your response is the best reply to that disguising racist. To hell with him and his club. Can he say this to the south American FA or Asian FA. It’s only the FA that they can bully they start commenting. Every region in Africa is different. If we keep playing in the summer, it clearly means only certain particular countries would be hosting such tournaments. Is that Fair to other countries. Why was the World cup moved to Novemeber and not in the summer. Weather was the main reason and all clubs agreed to adjust there schedule. Why can’t Europe do the same for us. It’s just 3 weeks.
Every other confederation holds their tournaments in June. Only Africa uses rain as excuse to hold its tournament right at the peak of the season, as if its only in Africa rain falls in June every year. Sprinkler and drainage technologies are still a challenge to us.
Yet we play world cup and Afcon qualifiers on the African continent between March and October each year and CAF never talks about shifting those qualifiers because of rain. And we expect to be taken seriously….???
Napoli president has simply echoed what we already know. January/February Afcons are not good for us and our players anymore. 2 weeks of pre-tournament camping and a further 2 weeks of group stage (at least) is enough for the person vying for the same positions our players play in their clubs to nail down a starting position in their absence. Except for the super star ones like the Manes, Salahs and Osimhens of this world. Its only out of sentiments we fans want to attribute it to “punishments’ for honoring national calls”. But the truth is that if I haven’t been able to displace you all season and you travel for 4 weeks in mid-season, I rather break both legs and burst a lung than let you just stroll back and confine me to the bench again for the other half of the season.
We are our own worst enemies in Africa.
CAF should take itself serious if it wants to be taken seriously. AFCON is a huge brand if they know what to do with it. Shifting and postponing and rescheduling all the time just makes a big mockery of the tournament.
LMAO Napoli president means serious business, the decision maker doesn’t care about other federations because the South African Players are mostly camped in their country so they’ll not be affected by whatever happens due to his selfish decisions. Motsepe is ruling African football to promote SAFA players and destroy the rest of the federations and the only person who can stop this madness is busy looking for NFF slot for another 4years instead of aiming higher. Time will tell how long Motsepe will go on with this evil regime because a new generation of Nigeria leadership will evolve soon.