Luciano Spalletti is the new trainer of Napoli, the Italian club announced on Saturday. The 62-year-old Italian has been with the club from Naples for two seasons and is the successor of Gennaro Gattuso, whose expiring contract was not renewed. Spalletti, who celebrated his greatest successes at Zenit St. Petersburg, is reportedly going to earn 2.8 million euros a year.
Napoli got the green light late on Friday night from Internazionale, where Spalletti was fired in May 2019 but had not disappeared from the payroll since. The Milanese club chose, partly due to the lack of an agreement, to continue to pay the trainer his monthly salary and not to pay the remaining amount in one go. Spalletti’s contract with the national champion of Italy ended in a month anyway. Inter no longer has to pay out the last month.
Napoli had Massimiliano Allegri as the number one candidate, but he returned to Juventus to succeed Andrea Pirlo. An agreement was then quickly reached with Spalletti. Gattuso’s departure did not come completely out of the blue due to the expiring contract. After all, he also had a difficult relationship with chairman Andrea De Laurentiis.
Napoli was unable to enforce participation in the Champions League on the last day of the past Serie A season. Napoli did not get further than a 1-1 draw at home against Hellas Verona and was therefore knocked out of the top four by Juventus. Spalletti previously stood for the group in Italy with Empoli, Sampdoria, Venezia, Udinese, Ancona, AS Roma and Inter.
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