Naples and Mario Rui at the end of the line. The story and reasons for the divorce

Naples, January 1, 2025 - The proverbial seventh-year crisis has been fatal for Mario Rui and Napoli, who said goodbye after a long and eventful epic.  

The story of Mario Rui in Naples

It was the July 13th, 2017 and the Neapolitan club snatched away from Rome the Portuguese, a professional left back with strong offensive skills. At the time, under the patronage of Maurizio Sarri, a little quietly and amidst a thousand doubts (which in part would resurface from time to time), a relationship was born that was destined to have an important impact on their mutual history. To be precise, 227 attendance, For a total of 16.784 ' on the field, embellished by 3 goal e 26 assists. Numbers, indeed, which however do not tell the whole story of what has happened in the meantime in a long and also tormented relationship in which many things have happened. There is one constant, however, and it concerns the ability of Mario Rui, practically never a designated starter, to climb the hierarchy and be ready when needed, becoming a valuable wild card on the pitch and a decisive locker room man when the sea began to get rough. And of storms, in 7 years, in the headquarters of Castel Volturno there have been several. Just as there have been coaches who have passed through the benches of Fuorigrotta. If with Carlo Ancelotti and especially Gennaro Gattuso the spark does not fly, the advent of Luciano Spalletti it's manna from heaven for Mario Rui, for a union that reforms after the common experience at Rome: an unhappy experience for the full-back, who was ready, steady, go and in a training session during the tour at Boston of the Giallorossi injured the anterior cruciate ligament of the left knee. The duo Spalletti - Mario Rui is definitely more fortunate in the capital of Campania, with its apotheosis reached in 2022-2023 season, that of a championship lived as a protagonist. Finally, one might say. The class of '91 also benefits from that year of grace, who perhaps for the first time in his career manages to show and make the most of his best qualities in the finishing phase, with assists promptly capitalized by what up front (and not only) was an authentic war machine. The exploit of the Portuguese is rewarded by the Neapolitan club (something that would not have happened exactly to all the heroes of the tricolor) with a rather important renewal: contract until 30 June 2026 with a salary from 2,1 million net (3,89 million gross). It's a shame that yet another storm looms on the horizon for a player with a strong and at times prickly character, who was also assisted by an agent at the time (Mario Giuffredi) with the same peculiarities. At the end of October there is the first upheaval that seems to foreshadow the imminent early divorce: from a Mario, Giuffredi, with whom the separation was stormy, with even a complaint filed against him Cones from the agent, to another, Mauri. Even before, in the summer he had seen Antonio Conte sit on the blue bench, Mario Rui had been put out of the squad by Napoli, which had also prevented him from training with the rest of the team: a situation mitigated by the intervention, advocated by the full-back, ofAssoCalciatori. The clearing was halfway, because the field, in light of the exclusion from the lists, would have remained a chimera for the former Empoli. And it is precisely at this moment that his long epic in blue actually ends, with the formal act, the consensual resolution signed at the end of the 2024, to seal a long-standing crisis.

The rest of the left lane

In the economy of the project, very little changes for a team that had already decided in the summer to do without the technical contribution of Mario Rui, now free to settle elsewhere and probably return to his homeland to close his career: St. Paul, already in orbit in recent months, permitting. The gentlemen of the left wing are Mathias Olivera e Leonardo Spinazzola, with the latter who in turn is not entirely certain of finishing the season in blue. In this case, however, the scenario would change, because another exit on the left would force the Napoli to return to the market, among other things finding themselves faced with a very common crossroads in January, especially when there is a team involved that is only in the league (albeit for the highest positions): go for a young, prospective and future-oriented profile, the so-called gamble, or for a safe second-hand player who is usually more in line with the transfer market and its parameters? In recent seasons the Neapolitan club has somewhat abandoned the first path, preferring to take, both in summer and in winter, that of the players who are already done and finished: even more so since there is Tale, the coach who is today the most manager of all, perhaps even in the entire panorama of Serie A. If these power games were valid at the dawn of an adventure full of unknowns, imagine now that almost at the halfway point of the season the harvest has gone beyond all expectations. In short, in the session at the gates Tale will decide practically everything and will do so by his own admission, obviously, with the aim of affecting and damaging as little as possible an almost perfect mechanism. The same premature departure of Mario Rui, although in the air and certainly more convenient for the club's coffers and its savings, probably has the matrix of the Salento coach, the first deus ex machina capable of stealing this role from Aurelio De Laurentiis. The owner evidently doesn't mind this temporary transfer of power, especially as long as it goes hand in hand with the team's excellent performance on the field. Almost like a match of Shanghai, in the headquarters of Castel Volturno no one wants to disturb a balance that is strong and fragile at the same time, so as not to cause damage. The exception to the rule, however, as always, exists and it goes by the name of Mario Rui, victim of the proverbial seventh-year crisis.

Read also - Atalanta, Gasperini: "A different match against Inter"