The Brazilian has shown his skills and the Lecce coach considers him a starter. The result? The club will pay 16.5 million to Sporting at the end of the season
Twenty days to take Naples. Overturning hierarchies, erasing doubts and fears. Imposing himself in training and performance. And if sometimes it can be easy to immediately reach the hearts of the fans, perhaps with a dribble, a shot, a goal, there are no shortcuts to convince a tough and demanding coach like Antonio Conte. But Alisson Santos goes faster than the difficulties of settling in, the problems with a new language or a new reality. He lets the field speak, the sole judge when it comes to sport. And there, every day in Castel Volturno, he showed the blue world with personality that he is already ready for a leading role. After a penalty scored under curve B in the Italian Cup, without trembling. And after having sent the best defense in Serie A into a tailspin, with that quick pace in tight quarters and that ferocious ride in the open field. Twenty days after landing in Italy, Alisson was already a starter in Bergamo, in a very delicate match for the future of Napoli. With the full trust of Conte and the team. Alisson has conquered everyone, and now his future is brighter than ever.
arrival point
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Enthusiasm must always be managed and considered. But in the face of talent, doubts disappear in the bud. He won’t be Kvaratskhelia, he won’t yet have the footballing maturity of David Neres, but he certainly has the hunger of someone who wants to arrive. And the exact perception of where he is: Naples for Alisson is not a passing adventure or a springboard. It’s the top team he dreamed of as a child, it’s the best he could ask for a year and a half after landing in Europe. Maradona had already got inside him when he played us as an opponent. But now everything is different, more intense, more exciting. The tears after the goal against Roma are just the preface to a book yet to be written. A novel for which Alisson wants to be the cover man.
a passepartout
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Conte and Manna had no doubts in January: they were looking for a player like this, quick and exuberant. Almost cheeky, with personality. And in a few weeks everyone is already crazy about him. Napoli will exercise the right of redemption, because 16.5 million are nothing compared to the potential demonstrated by the Brazilian. An important blow, which gave Napoli back offensive unpredictability and Maradona a new idol. Who must work and improve, with humility and without necessarily wanting to overdo it to demonstrate. In Bergamo he was selfish on a couple of occasions, but otherwise he was almost perfect, in both phases of the game. And the numbers speak very clearly: two shots on target and two off target, 53 touches, 4 successful dribbles out of 6, 20 positive passes out of 26, 5 tackles won, 6 balls recovered and 13 duels won out of 16. All in 85 very intense minutes of play, spent running back and forth, guided by Conte in the non-possession phase and by instinct in the offensive phase. Verona will be more than a litmus test, it will be like a final exam. Against small teams, Napoli have always struggled to find a way to open up spaces. Alisson can be the passepartout to open up the most closed defenses.
from champions
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Alisson at Napoli may already seem like a successful bet, but in reality for the Azzurri managers it was not a gamble, rather an opportunity. Manna moved in time, before its value could become off-market. And he made him sign a long contract, until 2031. In the Champions League, Alisson had demonstrated his enormous match-breaking potential: three goals, always coming on from the bench. And always decisive. In Naples, however, the Brazilian also arrived to shed the “12th man” label. In Bergamo he proved to be up to the task, but it’s not enough. We need to give more and more to bring Napoli back to the Champions League.
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