Despite the Scudetto, Spalletti opted to take a step back, with France’s Rudy Garcia taking over as the Neapolitans’ new coach, who will make his debut on Saturday against recently promoted Frosinone.
Rudi Garcia returns to the forefront of European football after his experience in Saudi Arabia, Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nasr.
The 59-year-old knows Calcio well thanks to his time at Roma, which he led to Champions League play in 2014 and 2015. Like Spalletti, his charisma is more than on display, but his only trophies as a manager came 12 years ago when he won the Ligue 1-French Cup double with Lille.
He has since come closest to finishing second with Marseille in the Europa League in 2018 and with Lyon in the French League Cup two years later.
Osimhen and Quaradonna
What speaks in favor of Napoli’s options is that he was able to retain last season’s titular heroes, starting with their star striker, Nigerian Victor Osimhen, who is likely to last until 2026 soon and who will lead his team’s attack after signing 31 goals in 2022- 2023.
His main teammate, Georgian Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, also continues, and it shows the good structural health of Napoli when this star duo bets on continuation and is not looking for new horizons.
South Korean Kim Min Jae left the Diego Maradona Stadium to join Bayern Munich.
The rest of the contenders for the title in Italy did not have a spectacular presence at the Mercato.
Inter Milan lost Edin Dzeko (Fenerbahce) and Romelu Lukaku (Chelsea). So far, he has made up for those losses only with France’s Marcus Thuram, who scored 16 goals for Borussia Mönchengladbach last season.
The second-placed European club also hired goalkeeper Jan Sommer to replace André Onan, who moved to Manchester United.
Milan, for their part, made a handsome sum from Sandro Tonali’s move to Newcastle. He signed eight players, two of them from Chelsea: Christian Pulisic and Ruben Loftus-Creek.
Mourinho ‘fishing’ at PSG
Lazio, which had a great last season, lost Sergei Milinkovic-Savic, who succumbed to the songs of the sirens of Saudi money. Argentine Tati Castellanos (former Girona) arrived at the Olympics as support for veteran Ciro Immobile.
With Juventus out of Europe due to sanctions over their financial scandals, American Timothy Weah is the most important signing so far.
In Rome, José Mourinho managed to bring in two midfielders from Paris Saint-Germain, Argentinian Leandro Paredes and Portuguese Renata Sanches, a few days before the start of the tournament.
The latter comes on loan with a buy option, while Paredes, world champion with Albiceleste in Qatar 2022, returns to his first club in Europe and joins the team until 2025.