MOST VALUABLE DEFENDERS IN THE WORLD | SOCCER ⚽

 

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The Most Valuable Defenders in the World:

1️⃣🇫🇷 William Saliba — £78M

2️⃣🇪🇸 Pau Cubarsí — £70M

3️⃣🇲🇦 Achraf Hakimi — £70M

4️⃣🇮🇹 Alessandro Bastoni — £70M

5️⃣🇵🇹 Nuno Mendes — £65M

6️⃣🇧🇷 Gabriel Magalhães — £65M

7️⃣🇳🇱 Dean Huijsen — £61M

8️⃣🇪🇨 Willian Pacho — £61M

9️⃣🇭🇷 Joško Gvardiol — £61M

🔟🇳🇱 Jurriën Timber — £61M

1️⃣1️⃣🇫🇷 Dayot Upamecano — £61M

1️⃣2️⃣🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Trent Alexander-Arnold — £61M

1️⃣3️⃣🇳🇱 Micky van de Ven — £57M

1️⃣4️⃣🇫🇷 Jules Koundé — £57M

1️⃣5️⃣🇪🇸 Álvaro Carreras — £52M

1️⃣6️⃣🇪🇸 Alejandro Balde — £52M

1️⃣7️⃣🇦🇷 Cristian Romero — £52M

1️⃣8️⃣🇵🇹 Rúben Dias — £52M

1️⃣9️⃣🇧🇷 Murillo — £48M

2️⃣0️⃣🇫🇷 Leny Yoro — £48M

2️⃣1️⃣🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Marc Guéhi — £48M

2️⃣2️⃣🇩🇪 Nico Schlotterbeck — £48M

2️⃣3️⃣🇪🇨 Piero Hincapié — £44M

2️⃣4️⃣🇺🇦 Ilya Zabarnyi — £44M

2️⃣5️⃣🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Levi Colwill — £44M

HOW A DE LAURENTIS EMAIL LED TO NAPOLI'S COLLAPSE IN JUST 11 MONTHS

Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis oversaw a historic season in which his club won a first league title since the 1980s. Less than a year later, the club are in disarray after a series of baffling decisions. Andrea Staccioli/Insidefoto/LightRocket via Getty Images

 A trophyless season beckons for Napoli, just a year after dominating Serie A and reaching the quarterfinal of the Champions League. And when the regret fades for not overcoming an injury-hit Barcelona in the round of 16 -- they had their shot and didn't take it, though maybe if Jesper Lindstrom's header had been on target, and if Pau Cubarsí's challenge on Victor Osimhen had been punished with a penalty, who knows? -- they may reflect on what happened to their club over the past 11 months. Maybe, one day, it will make a Harvard Business School case study and you'll be able to pick one up here. Except it will be a compendium of worst practices, rather than best practices -- a string of don'ts instead of do's.

This is the story of how a single, ill-advised certified email started a chain of events that led to the destruction of the greatest Napoli side since the days of Diego Armando Maradona. And all in less than a year.

Flash back to mid-April of last season. Napoli have just been knocked out of the quarterfinals of the Champions League, but it's OK: they're running away with the Serie A title. Osimhen is scoring a ton of goals, Georgian sensation Khvicha Kvaratskhelia has been dubbed "Kvaradona" (without charges of blasphemy) and coach Luciano Spalletti is the toast of Serie A.

Spalletti is a proud and somewhat eccentric man. His contract is up on June 30, but everyone assumes his extension is a slam dunk, and with a hefty raise too. He built this team, he loves the club and the city, he's settled and happy there. All he needs to do is sit down with club president Aurelio De Laurentiis and work it out.

Except ... De Laurentiis has a flash of inspiration.

Napoli have the unilateral option to extend Spalletti's deal by a season on the same salary. In real terms, it doesn't mean much -- no club, in any sport, is going to keep a coach against his will -- but maybe it can be an opening gambit in the negotiation? You assume that's what De Laurentiis was thinking as he (or his assistants tasked with his emails) hit "send" on the certified missive informing Spalletti in dry legalese that his option year had been exercised.

Rarely has anything backfired so badly.