Pepe Reina reflected on his time with Napoli, their growth under Luciano Spalletti and their Scudetto hopes this season.
The 40-year-old Spaniard, who is contracted to Villarreal until June 2023, spent four years in total with Napoli, initially joining the club on loan in 2013 before eventually making a permanent move in 2015. Reina made 182 appearances across all competitions for the Partenopei and was a reliable shot stopper until his departure in 2018.
Speaking to Corriere dello Sport, Reina first looked back on his time with Napoli.
“I immediately settled into the city, which welcomed me and my family with overwhelming feelings.
“My wife and my five children will come to watch the match, an excuse to hang around in what have been the places of our four years but also a way to go and say hello to all our friends. And we have many, believe me. In Naples there’s a people who win you over.”
He reflected on his relationship with former Liverpool and Napoli coach Rafa Benitez.
“With Rafa – to whom my thanks go – there’s an extraordinary relationship that’s lost for centuries, I’d like to say jokingly.
“But the secret of that Napoli was that market masterpiece, the building of a team that lasted and then the strength of the group.
“In a club that had already performed excellently, as the results underlined, Benitez’s irruption gave new impetus and served to complete the project and expand it.”
The Spanish veteran discussed the international appeal of Spalletti’s Napoli side.
“Napoli began to have an international scope. And from that moment on, their role has grown, because they have consistency at European level, they always make the cups, now they’re even a protagonist in the league and in the Champions League and with a football that is spectacular.
“It means that there is good in what has been built in the past.”
Reina reflected on Napoli’s collapsed title race in 2018 under Maurizio Sarri.
“A wound that has remained open, because you can’t not win with 91 points. But that’s how it went and the pain was exacerbated by the consideration that that Napoli played stellar football there, capable of spreading joy. A bit like Spalletti’s, I think.”
He then looked back on his time with Lazio.
“At first, with Inzaghi, I arrived to be Strakosha’s back up, then momentary situations overturned the hierarchies and I played a lot.
“A little less in the next season, with Sarri, a great man who had the chance – obviously more because of what we experienced together at Napoli – to put me on.”
The Spaniard spoke about the tactical emergence of playing out from the back.
“I moved forward, because in life I was lucky to meet Frank Hoek, Van Gaal’s goalkeeper coach from the beginning and then also at Barcelona, one of the fathers of the Ajax school, a forerunner capable of anticipating concepts that have become the cornerstone of this world.
“I changed with Frank Hoek, then I worked on myself and on those teachings that I brought with me and that served me in this new interpretation of a role that could not remain eternally old. In life, it is inadvisable not to grasp changes and therefore not to update oneself.”
He commented on Napoli’s Scudetto hopes this season.
“The season is long, now we’ll get into the thick of things. Then, if we can say so, we’ll also need a bang for the buck, less injuries, always exuberant condition, a moment that helps you at the right second, even a refereeing error that could affect things one way or another.”
Finally, Reina discussed Spain’s elimination from the World Cup in Qatar.
“A tremendous blow to be eliminated. But football is merciless. We have to look ahead and overcome this moment.
“The final is written, now: France-Brazil, no escape. They were the favourites before it started, they are even more so now that they have shown their strength.”