Napoli director Cristiano Giuntoli spilled the beans on how the Khvicha Kvaratskhelia deal came to be, corroborating what had been indicated by other people involved in the negotiation. The exec dished to Corriere dello Sport.
“The first time I noticed him was on tape during the lockdown. He was 19, but the quality of his feet was already noticeable. Gennaro Gattuso was on the bench back then and we both liked him. We phoned Kakhaber Kaladze to gather intel. He moved to Lokomotiv Moscow but without leaving a mark. Instead, he fared better at Rubin Kazan. But they asked for €30M, and we halted our chase before the real negotiation began. We were pursuing Victor Osimhen and we couldn’t spend much for him.”
Despite the early hiccup, Napoli kept following Kvaratskhelia, whose addition was eventually way less expensive.
“He stuck in our minds. When the war in Ukraine broke out, he went back to Georgia at Dinamo Batumi, and we immediately targeted him. We were quicker than Juventus, Roma and Real Sociedad. We sealed the deal for €10M. Luciano Spalletti signed off on it right away too. I sent the player to visit him in Milan when he put pen to paper. The challenge wasn’t to acquire him, but to do it to replace Lorenzo Insigne. He earns €1.7M gross, while our former star €9M. It’s easy to do the math.”
The Azzurri significantly reduced their payroll this summer.
“We had to take the risk of letting go of stars with big salaries. The pandemic weakened our finances, and we wanted to buck the trend. In the end, some divorces were obligated due to financial aspects. We preferred investing on a young team.”
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