Napoli loses captain Di Lorenzo to a bad injury and Conte lets off steam. His is an accusation against the rhythms of modern football (not without the risk of some criticism).
The left knee that plants itself on Maradona’s pitch, forcing itself into an unnatural twist. The screams of pain of Giovanni Di Lorenzothe race of the Napoli doctors and then the stretcher bearers. The sensation of an extremely serious injury, different from the mainly muscular ones that have decimated the Italian champions this season: a huge problem for the Neapolitans and also for Gattuso’s national team, which relied and relies on Di Lorenzo in the World Cup year.
The match between Napoli and Fiorentina, the first after the expulsion from Europe, leaves the sporting dimension and enters that of the sporting drama of the Neapolitan defender. The tests will clarify the extent of the problem, but it was enough to listen to Antonio Conte after the match to understand that the sensations are not good. On the contrary.
The coach from Lecce, tested by months of disappearance one after another of his starters, has gone on an assault on the calendars of modern football. Not something new, given that even on the eve of the match he had taken it upon himself with the few hours available between the Champions League match and the championship match. This time, however, his outburst was much broader, harsher and more detailed and for this reason destined to cause discussion.
“What’s sad is that we’re heading towards the ruin of football, because we’re not understanding that putting on so many matches… the clubs themselves don’t understand. Today the god of money is at the height of everything” was the incipit, recalling how Di Lorenzo was practically always on the pitch in the 9 matches in 27 days played by Napoli in January. Conte against modern football and its attachment to money, aware that he is tackling a delicate issue because the gigantism of football in the third millennium is taken advantage of first and foremost by professionals, earning salaries outside the market.
Here, then, is the second part of the attack: “I am convinced that I will take all the criticism: ‘Well, he gets his salary’. This is all bullshit! I do it for passion, thank God I don’t need money.” True in part, given that De Laurentiis already gives him and his coach a significant bank transfer every end of the month and that a large part of that money comes from the hyper-commercialization of football which largely comes from TV rights. And broadcasters pay a lot to show many games, not the other way around.
The scudetti collector, however, went further by launching a not-so-hidden jab at the Lega Serie A: “I try to protect this sport, we go towards entertainment, bringing teams abroad and to Australia, we don’t think about the difficulty of putting on so many matches”. A raw nerve like the blocked market for Napoli due to failure to comply with the expanded labor cost parameter (“There are indebted companies and we have a blocked market, this is fantastic”): “Instead of thinking about the new football rules, VAR, handball, playing in Perth in Australia, playing four matches in Arabia, we should be more intelligent and think about protecting this beautiful sport, protecting who is the true creator of this sport: the footballer. It is neither we coaches nor the players. presidents, but he is the footballer. I think he should be protected much better.
