Since the premature end of Patrick Vieira's adventure at Crystal Palace on March 17, 2023, no French coach has been a bench in the first division in one of the four major championships (Germany, England, Spain and Italy). What if this famine ends in the coming weeks? Even if everything is far from being tied, the hypothesis of seeing Rudi Garcia land in Naples, champion of Serie A replacing Luciano Spalletti has taken shape in recent days.
According to our information, confirming the indiscretions of the Reppublica, the 59-year-old French technician, free since his departure from Al Nassr in April and speaking fluently in the language of Dante, has solid assets up his sleeve. He has, we learn from concordant sources, already spoken with Aurelio De Laurentiis, the fiery president of the Parthenopean club. After the failure of the file leading to Luis Enrique, also followed by PSG, Napoli is also interested in the coach of Fiorentina Vincenzo Italiano.
A convincing passage in Rome
Garcia, France champion with Lille in 2011, Europa League finalist with Marseille in 2018 and Champions League semi-finalist with Lyon in 2020, knows Serie A inside out having spent two and a half years there from 2013 to January 2016 at AS Roma. There he formed a strong friendship with local legend Francesco Totti. In his first year in the transalpine capital, he finished 2nd in Serie A after having achieved the best start to the season in the history of the transalpine championship by winning his first ten games, better than the eight victories of Juventus of Giovanni Trapattoni and Michel Platini in 1985-1986. The following year was in the same vein with a new place of runner-up of Juventus to the key.
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Contacted in the summer of 2015 by Real Madrid to succeed Carlo Ancelotti, he declined this offer. A few months later, he was dismissed and replaced by... Luciano Spalletti. Then passed by OM and Lyon, he had decided to join Saudi Arabia in the summer of 2022 while keeping in mind to find, quite quickly, a position in Europe where he retains a good rating as evidenced by the approach of Manchester United in the autumn of 2021 at the time of the succession of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Napoli if the contacts materialize could offer him a great opportunity to bounce back.
Luciano Spalletti, eager to take a sabbatical year, said goodbye to Napoli on June 4, during the championship trophy ceremony. At the microphone of DAZN, he had been asked for possible advice to his successor. "I will just tell him to trust these players, because they have a lot of human and sporting qualities," he said.
