An extraordinary report in The Athletic suggests Napoli could be interested in Cristiano Ronaldo, who has asked to leave Manchester United and was also linked with Roma.
The repeat Ballon d’Or winner told Manchester United he wants to be allowed to walk away if a suitable offer arrives this summer, according to Times Sport, largely because of their failure to qualify for the Champions League.
Now The Athletic writes that Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Napoli are in the running for the Portuguese legend, after some reports suggested Roma were making an approach for him.
While Napoli do have the upper hand over Roma in that they are in the Champions League this season, the move to the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona would still be incredibly unlikely.
He only left Serie A last year for Juventus, the arch-rivals of the Neapolitans, while Napoli have also been enacting a cost-cutting exercise to lower the wage bill.
This has seen them let Lorenzo Insigne and Dries Mertens leave as free agents, while Kalidou Koulibaly could be sold if he refuses to take a pay cut.
All of those elements make the idea of Napoli covering Ronaldo’s salary frankly improbable.
There could be one way to pay for the transfer, which is that Napoli are the only major club in Italy to self-produce their own jerseys.
They could therefore rake in all the profits from shirt sales rather than share them with a kit sponsor.