Napoli president, Aurelio De Laurentiis, confirmed on his Twitter account the signing of 22-year-old Polish forward Arkadiusz Milik from Eredivisie side Ajax.
Milik was present at The Stadio San Paolo during Napoli’s preseason match against Nice on Monday and a deal was duly completed soon. The exact amount involved in the deal is still unclear but, a fee around €34 million is believed to have done the trick. The news was finally confirmed by the club president himself.
It has also been already reported that the striker will wear shirt No. 99 next season in the Serie A. The recent Napoli signing expressed his excitement by posting on the Facebook page of FM-G media:
"It's an honour I will become a part of Napoli with its amazing fans full of passion, a great club with a glorious history. I want to make these fantastic Napoli fans happy,"
Milik has arrived at the Serie A club with high expectations from the fans, as they look forward to this 22-year-old Polish striker to fill in the void left by Gonzalo Higuain. Higuain recently completed a record €90 million transfer to Serie A champions Juventus and Napoli were desperately in the hunt to replace him with a proven scorer.
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Milik just had a decent Euro 2016 campaign playing for his country, with his opening match goal against Northern Ireland earning his team a win. Post the tournament a host of clubs were interested in signing the tall forward with a deal finally been materialised by Napoli.
Ajax is parting ways with a striker whom they bought for €2.8 million from Bayer Leverkusen in 2015. Milik had spent the entire 2013-14 season on loan to Bundesliga side FC Augsburg from Leverkusen where he scored 2 goals in 20 appearances. The following year he was loaned out again, but this time to the Eredivisie side Ajax. He scored 23 goals in 33 matches to have a stellar debut season.
Ajax finally bought the player in April 2015, and Milik had an even better second season. He netted 24 times in 42 outings for the Dutch club before heading to France for the Euros. He has a total of 11 international goals to his name and was instrumental in his country’s qualification for the tournament.
Napoli has already signed defender Lorenzo Tonelli from Empoli and Italy international Emanuele Giaccherini from Sunderland. With the capture of Milik, they will hope to be title contenders in the coming season 2016-17.
For all major confirmed transfers of 2016/17 click here
