Napoli sign a player! ... but not really

Napoli signed Ghanaian midfielder Francis Obeng on a free transfer today, but don't expect to see him in a blue shirt any time soon. The 28 year old is merely being used to fill Napoli's annual quota of players who are not European Union citizens as required by the FIGC; if Napoli hadn't filled that last open signing slot, they would have lost it and been able to sign one less foreign player next season.

It's a bizarre rule, and frankly one that needs to change. All it does is encourage sham signings like this, which doesn't really help anyone involved. But the FIGC probably doesn't give a damn, and if anything are working on ways to further restrict foreign player signings.

This actually isn't the first time that Obeng has bee involved in such a ludicrous signing; one year ago, he signed a similar deal with Roma. The Ghanaian has actually played his whole career in Italy, though he hasn't played higher than Serie D, playing all his professional matches with Santarcangelo. Hopefully Napoli are at least giving him a decent chunk of money to make it worth his while.