Napoli president confirms Luciano Spalletti's departure
SSC Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis has confirmed that manager Luciano Spalletti has asked to leave the club this summer.
Spalletti led Napoli to a historic Scudetto during the 2022/23 season - their first in over 30 years - while playing thrilling football. With just one game left to play, Spalletti's side have accumulated 16 points more than second-place Lazio and scored five goals more and conceded two less than every other club on the peninsula.
Despite this season's successes, De Laurentiis has confirmed to Rai 3 that the club's manager has requested to take a sabbatical from football, asking to be released from his current contract.
"Spalletti is a free man," the Napoli president revealed. "When someone comes to you and says that he has done all he can and an era of his life has concluded.
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"He told me that he would prefer to have a sabbatical year. What do you do then? Do you oppose it?
"He gave me a great deal, I thank him. Now it is only right that he continues to do what he loves."
Following Napoli's win over Inter last Sunday, Spalletti also told the press of his decision to leave the club, confirming that he'd been mulling over leaving the club 'for a long time': "The matter has been decided, you don’t change your mind every day.
"It is a situation that has been brewing for a long time. When you work from morning to night, some matters tend to mature in your mind, because you have to put this spectacle on all the time.
"If you are not convinced that you can give everything these people deserve, it’s right to think it over. You think it over, you arrive at a conclusion and then you stick with it. This is not something that just fell from the sky out of nowhere."
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