The AFCON tournament usually takes place in January and February, in the middle of the European club season and players are confronted with a club versus country dilemma as they usually have to choose between staying with their clubs or flying down to represent their countries.
CAF have made attempts to play the tournament in the summer when the European season is over as it happened in the 2019 edition but meteorological concerns have seen the dates reverted to the start of the year.
Napoli lost two players in Frank Zambo-Anguissa and Kalidou Koulibaly of Cameroon and Senegal respectively to the AFCON tournament at the start of this year while their Nigeria striker Victor Osimhen only missed out because of injury. Koulibaly went on to captain Senegal to victory but has since left for Chelsea.
“I told them lads, don’t talk to me about Africans anymore!” said De Laurentiis during a streamed event as quoted by Football Italia.
“I love them, but either they sign something confirming they’ll back out of playing the Africa Cup of Nations, or otherwise between that tournament, the World Cup qualifiers in South America, these players are never available!
“We are the idiots who pay salaries only to send them all over the world playing for others.”
The next edition of the Africa Cup of Nations will be played in January/February 2024 in the Ivory Coast.
