Napoli pushing for James Rodriguez, Juventus agree to sell Barcelona target Cancelo and more, 13 July 2019

Napoli pushing for James Rodriguez

James Rodriguez in action for Real Madrid

Real Madrid midfielder James Rodriguez has been linked to Napoli for some time now. Napoli have confirmed that they are going after the 28-year-old, but Real Madrid are playing hardball over the transfer.

Zinedine Zidane seems unwilling to include the midfielder in his plans. James also failed to impress during his loan spell at Bayern, and the Bundesliga champion has refused to trigger his €42 million buyout option.

Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis revealed that the Serie A outfit have not given up on the chase and are ready to make a sacrifice. However, the 70-year-old insists that Real Madrid should lower their demand for the player.

“We are all prepared to make sacrifices for James Rodriguez, but we ask Real Madrid to make them too,” the Napoli president said.

He suggests that Madrid should let go of James rather than keeping the wantaway player. Napoli reportedly want to sign the midfielder on loan with an option to buy, and De Laurentiis seems to confirm the idea.

“We’ve not given up, but in order to break the ice we need Madrid to consider that rather than have an unhappy player sitting around, they should send him out to play. Perhaps on loan."

De Laurentiis believes that Napoli boss Carlo Ancelotti was the only manager who has got the best out of James. Ancelotti had worked with James at Real Madrid and Bayern.

“It’d be a gift for him. Studying this player, I realized he only ever really delivered on two occasions, both with Carlo Ancelotti on the bench, at Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.

“For him, this is a guarantee of being satisfied, central to our project and decisive on the field. He has understood that. Ancelotti spoke to him and was able to motivate him.

“We’ll see what happens… we are waiting for the time to be right,” he ended.