Former Inter president and owner Massimo Moratti has revealed he made an attempt to sign Marek Hamsik from Napoli at one point.
The Slovakian midfielder is a Napoli icon and recently returned to European football following a stint in China, with him joining Swedish club IFK Goteborg.
For a long time Hamsik was considered one of the best midfielders in Italy, but despite Moratti’s best efforts, he claims that Napoli president and owner Aurelio De Laurentiis was not up for selling him.
“I liked Hamsik,” Moratti recalled in an interview with Italian radio station Radio Kiss Kiss Napoli on Monday afternoon.
“I called De Laurentiis, but he would not sell him.”
Moratti, who owned Inter for nearly 20 years between 1995 and 2013, went on to explain where Inter got it wrong when it came to trying to sign Hamsik.
“Our failure was not signing him when he was at Brescia.”
Hamsik made no less than 520 appearances across all competitions for Napoli – making him the club’s all-time leading appearance maker – and scored 121 goals and provided 100 assists for his teammates.
He came close to winning the Serie A title with the Partenopei in 2018 but Maurizio Sarri’s side were ultimately pipped to the title by Juventus.
Moratti also touched upon Inter’s chances of winning the Scudetto as part of the same interview.
