The tournament takes place every two years and normally runs for a month from early January, midway through the season of Europe\u2019s top leagues\u2014apart from in 2019, when it was held from June to July for the first and so far only time.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnough with Africans, unless they renounce on playing the African Cup of Nations,\u201d De Laurentiis said during a streamed event on Wall Street Italia.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will not buy them anymore for that reason. We pay their salaries to send them all over the world to play for others right in the middle of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kalidou Koulibaly, a defender who moved from Napoli to Chelsea this summer, captained Senegal to its first African Cup title at the start of this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me the most important thing is to respect everybody,\u201d Koulibaly said when asked about De Laurentiis\u2019s comments on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot speak about the African national teams like this. You have to have respect like you have respect for the European national teams.\u201d<\/p>\n
Koulibaly said it was \u201ca difficult moment\u201d for Napoli during the AFCON tournament but that the comments were unfair.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs captain of Senegal, I think that it\u2019s not the good way to speak about African national teams, but I respect what he thinks. If he thinks that the team can play without African players, it\u2019s up to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Chelsea center back said others in Napoli don\u2019t support De Laurentiis\u2019s viewpoint.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot everybody has the same idea as him in the club because I know everybody over there. The supporters don\u2019t think like this. It\u2019s not an idea of the society, of the city, because the city is very respectful. It\u2019s what he thinks, not what the city thinks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Napoli still has three African players on its books: Nigeria forward Victor Osimhen, Cameroon midfielder Andr\u00e9-Frank Zambo Anguissa and Algeria midfielder Adam Ounas.<\/p>\n
The African branch of FIFPro, the global group of player unions, said it was \u201cshocked by the arrogance and contempt\u201d of De Laurentiis.<\/p>\n
\u201cRather than attacking African players, he must directly address and criticize those who design the calendar without taking into account the state of players,\u201d the organization said in a tweet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis says his club will not sign African players anymore unless they agree not to play in the African Cup of Nations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":14010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,4],"tags":[7,14,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-14013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-sports","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n