Released and overused until injured! Napoli president delivers a fierce critique, urging FIFA and UEFA to take responsibility for players injured while on national duty.
On 17 Nov 2025 GMT+7, Aurelio De Laurentiis, President of Napoli, launched a fierce criticism against FIFA and UEFA, accusing both organizations of neglecting the interests of clubs amid the growing problem of players getting injured while representing their national teams.
Napoli has been hit hard as their key midfielder, André-Frank Zambo Anguissa, suffered a hamstring injury during training with the Cameroon national team ahead of World Cup qualifying matches. He is expected to be sidelined for several months, marking a major blow for the defending champions.
This incident occurred only weeks after Amir Rrahmani returned from Kosovo national team duty with a similar injury, forcing him to be out until early November.
De Laurentiis sharply criticized the system that “forces” clubs to release players for national team duty, emphasizing that the current arrangement is unacceptable and cannot continue.
“I let Rrahmani go, and he came back completely broken. Anguissa returned in the same condition. We cannot keep going on like this,” De Laurentiis said.