Kvaratskhelia strike, Aurelio De Laurentiis reveals a backstory

“We had already centered the choice three years ago.”

Golden moment, indeed golden season, for Aurelio De Laurentiis’ Napoli, the absolute ruler of the Serie A league, which on Tuesday will make its return to the Champions League stage after an excellent group stage, which ended in first place.

Just on the eve of the demanding match against Eintracht Frankfurt, the winner of the last Europa League, the Azzurri patron made a sudden blitz in the press room. Among the topics touched upon by the president was also a backstory on the purchase of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, perhaps the best player in the league so far.

“Coaches have a role, that of coaching, and we have one who knows how to do it but we cannot expect him to know every player in the world. We had already centered our choice of Kvaratskhelia three years ago, when he was 18 years old, but when faced with a request for 30 million, at a time when we had lost 200 million to Covid, we had to back out. Then we got him for 10. The secret of this Naples? It is to want to play while having fun. Soccer is a game, if you don’t have fun it’s a heartbreak,” De Laurentiis said.