Rudi Garcia is the gamble of Aurelio De Laurentiis

Coming to grips with a legacy no prominent Italian coach would accept, Aurelio De Laurentiis has decided to gamble. Rudi Garcia had ended up on the periphery of the empire, indeed, perhaps even a few meters beyond: he terminated Al Nassr after less than nine months, interspersed with the arrival of a hurricane named Cristiano Ronaldo. The patron of Napoli says he made his decision “after meeting and visiting him over the last ten days”, to want to emphasize a crucial, albeit controversial, aspect: the post-separation indiscretions with Al Nassr, in fact , they reported on a Garcia now on the run with his locker room.

We find him again in Italy seven and a half years after the last time: he had arrived in Rome with a veil of charm and mystery, an elegant and successful coach, capable of leading Lille to victory in Ligue 1 and the national cup in 2011. Two years later, therefore, the landing in the capital: in Trigoria he had found the emotional rubble of a team fresh from the excruciating defeat in the Italian Cup final against Lazio. Arrived at the helm of a team in which the embers of the pyre extinguished with difficulty could still be seen, even in that case after a casting that had seen numerous excellent rejections and which did not see him in pole position at all, he had become a brilliant architect in a very short time , bankrolled by a market that had given him the best version of Benatia and Strootman, the protégé Gervinho, a Maicon still able to amaze. He had therefore intercepted the malaise of the fans, immediately mastering Italian and using the first training sessions (“Chi ci contesta è della Lazio”) and the press conferences to build the figure of the strong man in command: ten victories in the first ten days championship had done nothing but fuel this myth, between the conference of the “Church brought back to the center of the village” after the success in the derby presented with the cry of “A derby is not played, it is won” and appearances in contexts theoretically not open to the story of football, such as the interview granted to Daria Bignardi shortly after the middle of that season. A Mourinho in a small way, a revolution that did not find the support of victories: not a negligible factor in a fiery location like that of the Eternal City and in a context that had protected him in the media until the placements had arrived.

A parable that had ended, not without preventive signals, in January 2016, in the middle of a season so tormented as to induce the Roma supporters to boo at the end of the match that had given the Giallorossi access to the knockout stages of the Champions League: one 0-0 arrived after 90 minutes of excruciating ugliness against Bate Borisov, Roma capable of snatching the pass for the knockout phase with the pittance of 6 points. A month later, with Spezia’s exit from the Coppa Italia in the middle, the adventure ended with the passing of the baton to Luciano Spalletti: a lot of water has passed under the bridges.

Meanwhile, on Garcia’s chest, the awards for European placements have appeared at the helm of Marseille, taken to the final of the Europa League, and of Lyon, who held on until the semi-final of the Champions League in the crazy year of Covid. It seemed like the perfect showcase for the relaunch, but instead it had become the swan song. Up to the ten days of De Laurentiis, to a career that suddenly changes scenery at 59 years old. Napoli hope to find the very first Italian Garcia, that of a beautiful and vertical 4-3-3 and with shoulders so broad that they can support the weight of a very heavy square. This time the comparison is with a predecessor who rewrote history.