Napoli ‘close’ to signing Amadou Diawara from Bologna

One of the more popular young players in Italy on the transfer market this summer has been Amadou Diawara. The Bologna midfielder is widely considered to be the next “big thing” in Serie A, and the 19 year old has been courted by every major team in Italy and a few from abroad. It had been recently believed that he was set for a move to Roma, but that seemed to collapse — and according to Gianluca Di Marzio, Napoli are swooping in to pick up the pieces.

Di Marzio reports that Napoli are working on a deal worth roughly €17-18 million, which is a lot to ask for a teenager, but for one with the skills that he displayed last season as an all-action midfielder who defends well and can ably support the attack when needed. He’s a good, useful player now with an absolutely tremendous ceiling both physically and technically, and that’s the exact kind of player Napoli need to work on acquiring.

Napoli supposedly want to wait to finalize the deal until after they unload Mirko Valdifiori, who seems potentially set for a move to Torino, potentially as part of a player-plus-cash deal for Nikola Maksimovic. Because yes, that dance is apparently happening yet again.

Still, hopefully Napoli can get this deal tied up soon. It sounds like they’re very much in the lead in this chase right now, but with how Diawara’s deal with Roma fell apart and how in-demand he is, there’s very little room for error. It’d be better not to wait for Valdifiori to leave just for the sake of time, but either way, the prospect of Napoli signing Diawara is a very, very exciting one. He’s a player who can help them now and help them even more down the line, and that’s an excellent thing to have on the horizon.