Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis explains the failure to sign Sampdoria’s Roberto Soriano, and will do the deal in January.
The transfer appeared to be complete last night, but the Partenopei dramatically failed to deposit his contract with the Lega Serie A in time.
“Soriano was never a Napoli player,” De Laurentiis explained, speaking to Radio Kiss Kiss Napoli.
Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis explains the failure to sign Sampdoria’s Roberto Soriano, and will do the deal in January.
The transfer appeared to be complete last night, but the Partenopei dramatically failed to deposit his contract with the Lega Serie A in time.
“Soriano was never a Napoli player,” De Laurentiis explained, speaking to Radio Kiss Kiss Napoli.
“We’d been trying for months, but the lad, since he has a bond with [Coach Sinisa] Mihajlovic wanted to go to Milan. He was convinced Sinisa could persuade the Rossoneri directors to buy him, but the Milanese then signed [Genoa’s Juraj] Kucka.
“At that point, since Sampdoria were at San Paolo [for Sunday’s 2-2 draw] and [Samp President Massimo] Ferrero was pushing for the player to transfer to Napoli, we talked again.
“After the match, we met in a room in the stadium, and I said to him: ‘You, like my family, are from Campania, you come from the province of Avellino, I don’t understand why you’re still thinking of Milan when they don’t want you anymore’.
“So I began to woo the player in a nice and polite way, he’s very polite and shy, but I could slowly see that we were starting to break through, and finally, at 22.20 yesterday he said ‘yes, ok’.
“Ferrero is right, the Lega Serie A doesn’t help us, what if you can’t close the agreement in 24 hours? If two teams have reached an agreement they should have the right to fine-tune the details in the coming days.
“The deal was complicated, there was also [Camilo] Zuniga’s loan, and at the same time Soriano has a company which manages his image who I had to find an agreement with.
“I spoke with [sporting director Cristiano] Giuntoli and all the staff from 17.00 to 22.00, and I have to thank Ferrero, who was totally available.
“Unfortunately Soriano was at the training camp at Coverciano with the national team, and even that meant it took more time, if he’d been with us in Milan we could probably have got it over the line.
“I called [FIGC President Carlo] Tavecchio, but he confirmed that the window shut at 23.00, and it was the choice of the Lega.
“This country prevents us from doing the bureaucracy quickly. I said to [Soriano’s agent Manuel] Montipò and to Sampdoria that the deal wasn’t done due to the cumbersome nature of our institutions, and we arranged to meet in January to complete the deal.”