Napoli president reveals why he didn’t sign Viktor Gyokeres from Sporting | OneFootball

Viktor Gyokeres - who has already made his official debut for Arsenal - was highly coveted by various 'European giants' throughout this transfer market. Despite not entering the race for the former forward of Sporting, Napoli was one of the teams with an eye on the Swedish international in the last two transfer windows. However, the Italian emblem never ended up advancing for the signing of Gyokeres and Aurelio De Laurentiis, president of Napoli, revealed the reason, admitting having made a promise to the coach of the Neapolitan team, Antonio Conte.

"I could have sold Kvaratskhelia at that time: Paris Saint-Germain offered more than 200 million euros for the Kvara-Osimhen package. However, I had promised Conte that I would keep him and did not feel comfortable doing so. With these funds, the idea was to buy Gyokeres", began by revealing the president of the Italian team to the newspaper Corriere della Serra.

Despite De Laurentiis's desire, Kvaratskhelia ended up heading to Paris in January of this year: "I had to sell him because his agent threatened to invoke Article 17. After the Georgian's extraordinary first season, we immediately moved to negotiate a renewal, increasing his salary and offering him a very significant amount, knowing that a too low value would attract the interest of many clubs willing to offer him pharaonic contracts. However, his agent, Mamuka Jugeli, had other plans for both himself and the player".

The president of Napoli also revealed that he did everything to keep the Georgian in the squad: "At the end of the second year of his contract, the European Championship took place in Germany. Manna, Chiavelli and I flew to Dusseldorf to resolve the situation, but Mamuka continued to stall, claiming that Giuntoli had promised him money that was never paid. An easy lie to verify", he concluded.

In the end, Viktor Gyokeres ended up heading to Arsenal and Napoli ended up without their two stars, Kvaratskhelia and Osimhen, who could have given a different direction to the former Sporting striker. The Nigerian forward, who could have headed to PSG with Kvaratskhelia, ended up being loaned to Galatasary for a season, having remained at the Turkish emblem permanently for 75 million euros.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.