HIGHLIGHT
Zlatan Ibrahimovic could one day join Napoli as coach, Says Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis has hinted that he believes Zlatan Ibrahimovic could one day join the club as coach.
De Laurentiis held talks with Manchester United forward Ibrahimovic before he opted to move to Old Trafford after his contract at Paris Saint-Germain had expired last summer.
He told Mediaset: “I would have liked him here as a player, but he’s reached a certain age now and our fans are demanding — and it’s only right that they are like that.
“As a coach? Only time will tell. We met this summer and I found him to be a very relaxed, extraordinary man.”
De Laurentiis saw his side beaten 3-1 at Real Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday and indicated that he was not happy with some of the decisions taken by coach Maurizio Sarri.
“I would never allow myself to give suggestions, and I don’t want to go into the choices he made,” he said.
“There are some things I might not have agreed with, but I will keep these to myself.
“I’m not saying that [Arkadiusz] Milik should have played instead of [Dries] Mertens. The problem was he [Sarri] should have looked at all the alternatives before the Champions League.
“If you experiment with all your 26 players at least it allows you to understand the players you have signed, the systems you can play and all the rest.
“If not, you get to the end of the season with somebody who has not played a single game.
“It’s fundamental for me to know if I can count on some of these players or not, but this way I can never know if I made a mistake in investing certain figures.”
He may have been referring to winter signing Leonardo Pavoletti, who was not even named among the substitutes and he has played only a handful of minutes since arriving from Genoa.
De Laurentiis said he felt Napoli had “lacked a bit of Neapolitan cazzimma” — a word that translates as “opportunist shrewdness” — at the Bernabeu.
“The only one who had it was [Lorenzo] Insigne, who scored a marvellous goal,” he said.
“The others didn’t even turn up — it was as if they had turned statues in front of this sacred monster that goes by the name Real Madrid.”
However, he stressed that he felt Napoli could still turn the tie around, adding: “In Naples, it is going to be a completely different story.
“We have players the envy of everybody and I’ve had lots of offers which I have to turn down.”
