Aurelio De Laurentiis on Antonio Conte: Napoli's Future is Secure
Aurelio De Laurentiis has never been shy of a bold statement, and on Antonio Conte he is drawing a clear line: Napoli’s project, he insists, will not be abandoned.
Conte arrived at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona in 2024 with a demanding brief – rip up and rebuild a side that had lost its way after the Scudetto fairytale. He did more than steady the ship. He delivered the Serie A title last season and reshaped the squad in his own, uncompromising image. For De Laurentiis, this Napoli is as much Conte’s reflection as the club’s.
“Antonio Conte is a very serious man. He has a contract with me. He will never abandon me at the last minute,” the president said, speaking to The Athletic.
In his mind, the idea of Conte walking now is not just unlikely; it would be almost unthinkable. “Because it will create for Napoli a big problem. If he sacrifices himself after two years of creating a very strong Napoli… it is also his creation. So he will ‘kill his baby’, abandoning him just at the last minute.”
That image – Conte “killing his baby” – is classic De Laurentiis: theatrical, pointed, and designed to underline just how intertwined coach and club have become. Conte has built a side that runs on his intensity, his demands, his tactical structure. To walk away on the eve of another cycle, in the president’s eyes, would be to turn his back on his own work.
Yet even De Laurentiis recognises the one job that can tug at any Italian coach’s ambition: the national team.
He knows the pull of the Azzurri shirt, the prestige of leading Italy at a major tournament. So he leaves a narrow door open – but on his terms. “Or… he decides immediately and says ‘I would like to go’,” De Laurentiis continued. “Then I have the time during April and May to find somebody else to make the substitution. Otherwise, I don’t think Mr Conte will ever abandon Napoli. He’s a serious, professional man. If I was a coach, before to accept, I will think 100 times.”
The message is clear. If Conte ever wants to go, it has to be early, clean, and with enough time for Napoli to react. No last-minute drama. No scramble in July. Planning, not panic.
De Laurentiis has even floated an unusual compromise: a kind of “loan” deal for his coach. Earlier this month, at the screening of the Napoli documentary “AG4IN” in Los Angeles, he was asked again about the national team. “Conte to the national team? Yes, I think I’d lend him if he asked me,” he said.
It is a remarkable stance. A club president openly talking about lending his title-winning coach to the federation, while in the same breath insisting he will not lose him. It underlines both the confidence he has in Conte’s commitment and the stature the coach now holds in Italian football.
For now, though, all of that sits in the background. On the pitch, the equation is brutally simple.
Napoli are second in Serie A with 66 points from 32 matches, nine behind leaders Inter Milan. Six games remain. The margin is wide, the time short, but Conte is not wired to coast through run-ins. The defending champions are chasing perfection from here, looking to win every remaining fixture and push Inter as close as the table will allow.
Their next test comes on Saturday against Lazio, another club wrestling with its own ambitions and uncertainties. De Laurentiis talks of contracts, loyalty and long-term visions, but Conte’s answer will be written where it always is – on the touchline, in the results, in whether this “very strong Napoli” he has built can keep throwing punches until the final day.
