Luciano Spalletti leaves with victory – Kommersant

In the near future in European football, apparently, there will be a very unexpected coaching resignation. Luciano Spalletti, who made a grand breakthrough with Napoli this season by winning his first Italian championship gold with the club in more than three decades, has decided to leave the team. Spalletti, who once coached Zenit, and Aurelio De Laurentiis, the president of the Neapolitans, are most often cited as the reason for the dismissal.

The fact that 64-year-old Luciano Spalletti will leave the post of head coach of Napoli after the end of the season was reported by a number of media resources, such as Corriere dello Sport, L’Equipe, Sky Sports. They all remind that after the Sunday match of the 36th round of the Italian championship, in which the Neapolitans won – 3: 1 – the Champions League finalist Inter, Spalletti already, in fact, hinted at the possibility of leaving, refusing to confirm that he would remain in the team in the summer , and saying that he had already “made a decision” about his future and was not going to change it. Sources of publications claim that the solution lies in the immediate separation from Napoli.

This is extremely unexpected news, given the context. Luciano Spalletti is a very famous coach with many notable achievements in his track record. This list also includes two gold medals of the Russian championship, which he won in 2010 and 2012 with Zenit: Spalletti worked successfully for a long time in the St. Petersburg club. But it was precisely in the ending season that the veteran mentor’s clear career take-off took place.

Luciano Spalletti will take over Napoli in 2021. In his debut Neapolitan season, he finished third in the national championship with his new club, and in the second he made a grand breakthrough with him. Napoli have won Italian league gold for the first time since 1990. At the same time, it is important in what style he provided it.

Luciano Spalletti’s team had an overwhelming advantage in stability over all competitors, and with two rounds to go in the tournament, they are 18 points ahead of second-placed Lazio.

Before the start of the season, it was impossible to imagine such a clear dominance of any of the clubs.

And the quality of the game “Napoli” is fully consistent with its performance. Neapolitan football in recent months has consistently earned compliments from leading experts for its trendiness and brilliance. And a number of the club’s players, such as forwards Victor Osimkhen and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, under Luciano Spalletti have sharply increased in value and attracted interest from European football giants.

Extraordinary history adds the fact that the news that Luciano Spalletti is ready to invite one of these giants did not appear in the spring.

Moreover, the sources announcing his resignation claim that the Italian specialist just wanted to take a break from football for a year before proceeding to consider the proposals that come to him.

R.M.C. Sport, explaining the coach’s act, puts forward the “difficult” relationship between Luciano Spalletti and Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis as the main version. According to him, Spalletti was dissatisfied with some of the actions of the top manager of the club, in particular the proposal to extend his contract without additional negotiations on the terms of the agreement.

Thus, in the near future, Napoli will face the difficult task of finding a worthy successor to Luciano Spalletti against the backdrop of the likely departure of a number of leaders. The same RMC Sport, listing possible candidates for the vacant position, names the names of Gian Piero Gasperini, Rafael Benitez, Thiago Motta.

Alexey Dospekhov