Milan (AFP) – Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis confirmed on Monday that he has talked to Serie A rivals Genoa about signing Polish striker Krzysztof Piatek.
The 23-year-old Poland international has scored a league-topping nine goals after his move from Cracovia last summer for four million euros ($4.6 million), having scored 21 goals in 36 Polish league games last season.
“I’ve talked about Piatek both with (Genoa president Enrico) Preziosi and his agent,” De Laurentiis confirmed at an event for the Napoli club in the town of Solopaca.
“We will meet again, but I’ll leave our coach (Carlo Ancelotti) in peace, I don’t need to run and I don’t want to get involved in an auction.
“Without taking anything away from Piatek we’ll need to see if he can do as well in our setup as he does at Genoa.”
Piatek’s 14 goals in 10 competitive games for club and country have attracted the interest of English side Chelsea and Spanish giants Barcelona, as well as Serie A rivals Napoli, Roma, Inter and Juventus, with his price tag now estimated at 50 million euros ($57 million).
Meanwhile, De Laurentiis also said he was hoping to extend Ancelotti’s three-year contract to six years. The Italian coach replaced Maurizio Sarri in the summer.
“Ancelotti is an example. He has won everywhere, with AC Milan, Real Madrid, Bayern, PSG and Chelsea,” said De Laurentiis.
“I told myself that if I took him to Naples, he would certainly give me something in return.
“I understand that the road is long and full of pitfalls that we can’t avoid, but this year I gave Ancelotti nine games to settle and he did it quickly.”
Napoli are six points behind leaders Juventus after eight games, and travel to Udinese on Saturday.
They are also top of their Champions League Group, one point ahead of Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool, after two games, having beaten the English club in Naples.
