Edinson Cavani.
Manchester City will not be paying the £53.6m buyout clause in Edinson Cavani’s contract at Napoli and are not in contention for the Uruguayan striker, Napoli president Aurelio de Laurentiis has revealed.
The 26-year-old striker has been linked with a move away from the southern Italian club and Real Madrid and Chelsea have been interested in signing him.
Cavani scored 38 goals for Napoli last season, scored three times against City in the Champions League in 2011, and found the back of the net in the first leg of Chelsea’s eventual 5-4 second round aggregate victory against the Champions League qualifiers in the same competition a year later.
“Manchester City have not the money to pay for the Uruguay striker,” De Laurentiis said at the unveiling of Rafael Benitez as the new Napoli coach.
“The Abu Dhabi (owners) have said they will never spend €63m (£53.6m) for Cavani. They say, ‘we can give other things,’ but they are not in the interest of our club.”
De Laurentiis went on to say that Real are the only club to have made a firm offer for Cavani.
He added Napoli had “never received a call” from Chelsea about the player, with the UEFA Financial Fair Play regulations cited as a barrier to any deal as the loss-reducing rules are “conditioning everybody” to not spend large sum on transfers.
Cavani had a bad outing against Nigeria in the Matchday 2 clash of the Confederations Cup in Brazil, which Uruguay won 2-1, fluffing two late opportunities to increase his nations tally in the crucial encounter.
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