Mercato Madness: Brazilian star eyes Napoli move

Now this is a transfer rumor we can get behind: Brazilian team Cruzeiro have a 22-year old right back who wants to play in Italy, and he might just be headed for Napoli.

The player in question is Mayke, considered by some to be the best young Brazilian fullback still plying his trade in his home country. He and Cruzeiro have apparently decided that it's time for him to take the next step and move abroad, and the player has his eye set on Italy.

His agent is one Fabio Mello, who told the press that several Italian teams have shown an interest in Mayke, but emphasized that any potential deal would be in it's absolute earliest stages, which shouldn't be surprising since the transfer window doesn't open for several months. Mello refused to identify any particular clubs who are interested in Mayke, but his agency's Italian representative recently identified Napoli as the club showing the most interest -- though he apparently did so without Mello's permission.

If Napoli are interested as rumored, such a deal would make a lot of sense. With Camilo Zuniga unreliable thanks to injury, Henrique likely to leave this summer, and both Christian Maggio and Giandomenico Mesto out of contract, right back will be a big priority for Napoli to address in the transfer market.

Mayke offers pace and dynamic attacking support going forward and while he's got some defensive fragility, his one-on-one defense is quite good and the rest of his defensive game has been taking steady steps forward. At 22 years old, he's got plenty of development time left, and this would be a very Napoli sort of move. Plus, with several Brazilian players already in the side, it should be easier to bed Mayke in to the side if he moves to Naples.

Provided that the fee doesn't wind up being too high, this is definitely the kind of move Napoli should look at making.  It makes too much sense to not at least try to get it done.