Dries Mertens did not see his farewell to Napoli coming. His broker Stijn Francis told this in the MidMid podcast. Francis also revealed a remarkable ‘Plan B’.
Vincent Van Genechten
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“Actually, we realized much too late that the Napoli story was coming to an end,” Francis said. “I had the naive assumption of: it will be fine here. And so does he, because we never pushed for other options. Even in May-June it was like we’ll see. But it never became concrete, so both me and Dries were surprised that it didn’t get around. That was actually… and we didn’t ask for much. If you look at an offer like that of Juventus (5 million a year, ed.), we asked Napoli very little. But those weren’t negotiations either, that was supply and demand. It was take it or leave it with them. That was a disappointment and my biggest disappointment is that Dries did not have the farewell he wanted. They took something from him there and that is still sour.”
Especially the role of the flamboyant chairman Aurelio De Laurentiis provoked some frustration.
“Two weeks before he made public that Dries had refused Napoli’s proposal (2.2 million per year, ed.), he had come to visit baby Ciro,” Francis said. “He could say that he was the only one who still wanted Dries. And beware, we never made a war with him and I even have quite a lot of respect for that chairman. And he has also effectively made a proposal, but… Spalletti (the trainer, ed.) and Giuntoli (the sporting boss, ed.) have never called Dries to convince him. Then you actually already know what time it is in sporting terms.”
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Adventure in… Bali
But were there no backup plans? “One of his plans was to play football in Bali for a year,” the broker laughs. “Maybe it was a Plan D rather than a Plan B and it was about Bali United, the champion. It would also suit him great, but then I had another year in my head of Serie A. Say goodbye to everyone and then that adventure. That was the plan. But there were other conversations as well, with Juventus for example. That was very concrete and a very interesting transfer, for us and for Dries. But you felt with him that he couldn’t do that with his heart, and then you also saw the class of a club like Juventus. They fully understood that.”
“The transfer to Galatasaray has been a long process, it’s a jungle there. It took a while before they came up with the amounts that were interesting for Dries. And Galatasaray is one of the most beautiful clubs to go to if no other top-class Juventus comes down. The club also suits him. Antwerp? There was never actually a conversation with it. A question has sometimes arisen after the transfer of Toby Alderweireld, but that was it. Dries did not want to return to Belgium yet.”
Steven Francis.
