Napoli forward Giacomo Raspadori believes fate wanted him to move to Napoli and that he is not worried about a lack of playing time. The 22-year-old made the switch to Naples in the summer and featured largely from the bench or as a backup to Victor Osimhen and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, but speaking to Corriere dello Sport, the youngster explained that joining the Partenopei was an important decision for him:
“Napoli was my precise choice, urged by what Giuntoli and Spalletti were telling me: if you’ll pardon the joke, they put me in the middle, I was happily dazed by their words, I was grasping for confidence. I couldn’t be wrong, I wasn’t wrong.
The scudetto? I would be a liar if I feigned detachment. But it is not an obsession. It is the goal for which we work, but without stress. I believe in it, though: to win it we will need the commitment of these three months and the ability to show that we have deserved it. Napoli’s qualities, so far, have emerged.
My favourite centre-forward? Benzema ahead of Lewandowski, of those who have experience. Of the up-and-comers, assuming they can be called such, Haaland and Osimhen.
Lack of playing time? I am prepared: Julian Alvarez, newly crowned world champion, played only 356′ minutes at City. Haaland is no joke either…..
It’s the hard law of the big clubs, those who deserve it go on the field and those who stay out try to grab the opportunities that come along. It’s healthy competition, maybe even one of the secrets to getting better. And it is proof that strikers are coming up who are destined to dominate the international stage for the next decade: Victor is about to turn twenty-four; the Norwegian is twenty-two and a half; and Alvarez will be twenty-three in a month.
Fate wanted me in Naples and I can only be proud of that. It was an opportunity for me to seize, because I got to grow up watching Sarri’s Napoli, impressed basically by the very nature of a club that has always had a direct philosophy with entertainment.”
