Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis assures he is not concerned by the ‘plusvalenza’ investigation into the Victor Osimhen move from LOSC Lille, because ‘I am a warrior.’
The broad-ranging investigation was launched initially in France and then spread to Italy, where it flagged up 62 transfers across two seasons.
Juventus are involved in 42 of the trades, which it is argued had inflated transfer values to make players seem far more valuable than they really are on the market.
Those figures are then registered as a ‘plusvalenza’ – capital gain – and help balance the books of both clubs.
While Juve had by far the most of these deals, the one that stood out was Osimhen, because officially LOSC sold the striker to Napoli for €71.25m plus bonuses.
However, €20.1m of that was made up of four players who have since vanished without trace.
Goalkeeper Orestis Karnezis was the only one who ever made a single appearance for Lille, but the three Napoli youth team players were immediately loaned to sides in the lower divisions and then released from their contracts.
When the New York Times contacted Napoli President De Laurentiis to ask about the investigation, this was his response.
“I’m not worried because I’m a warrior.”
Among the other transfers that are under investigation, there is also the exchange between Juventus and Manchester City for Danilo and Joao Cancelo.
The swap between Arthur Melo of Barcelona and Juve’s Miralem Pjanic is also being looked at, as even at the time it seemed odd they were given such high transfer valuations.