ADL: No Di Maria or Balotelli

By Football Italia staff

Aurelio De Laurentiis insists Napoli will not be signing Angel Di Maria or Mario Balotelli this summer but hints goalkeeper Francesco Bardi could be drafted in.

In his latest ‘true or false’ on Radio Kiss Kiss, De Laurentiis was asked about the trio, as well as PSV right-back Santiago Arias, given Napoli are no longer pursuing Youssouf Sabaly, Dries Mertens and surplus midfielder Alberto Grassi.

“On Arias, we must resolve the non-EU issue because we have to give Meret time to recover calmly,” responded the President.

“Will we negotiate for Bardi? That’s neither true nor false. Mertens won’t leave, Di Maria won’t come in and as for Balotelli, it’s been years that I’ve said he won’t be signing, so it’s very much false that he’ll join Napoli.

“As for Grassi, we have a very interesting offer from Spain. We’re evaluating the best solution for him, but he won’t go to Parma or Cagliari as neither of them have offered me the €18m I want.”

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