De Laurentiis to stand trial over Osimhen deal

Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis will stand trial in December 2026 over alleged false accounting charges linked to the transfers of Victor Osimhen and Kostas Manolas.

De Laurentiis was indicted by Rome’s preliminary hearing judge for alleged false accounting across the 2019, 2020 and 2021 financial years. Prosecutors claim the club artificially inflated capital gains in two major transfers: Manolas from Roma in 2019 and Osimhen from Lille in 2020.

The indictment also extends to CEO Andrea Chiavelli and the club itself, marking one of the most serious legal challenges in De Laurentiis’ 20-year tenure. The first courtroom hearing is scheduled for December 2, 2026.

The €76m Osimhen deal of 2020 remains the biggest focus of the investigation. It included four Napoli youth players, Oreste Karnezis, Claudio Manzi, Ciro Palmieri and Luigi Liguori, valued collectively at nearly €20m. Italian investigators believe these valuations were artificially inflated to disguise capital gains.

Legal scrutiny deepened when Osimhen’s leaked testimony to Italy’s Guardia di Finanza revealed he never understood the contract he signed. The striker described a process in which he felt pressured, confused and emotionally overwhelmed as he navigated negotiations soon after his father’s death.

He said he was pushed into meetings, told an agreement already existed, and even urged to fly to Naples the day after his father passed away, something he described as profoundly distressing.

Osimhen explained that he had never seen a contract draft, was handed only a “pseudo-agreement,” and claimed his then-agent prioritised the transfer over his personal situation.

Manolas’ 2019 move from Roma to Napoli is the second major transfer under scrutiny. The Greek defender joined for roughly €36m, activating his release clause, while midfielder Amadou Diawara simultaneously moved from Napoli to Roma for around €21m.

Napoli logged the Manolas acquisition at a value prosecutors now claim was inflated. The situation became more suspicious when Manolas was sold to Olympiacos in 2022 for only €2.5m, marking a dramatic drop in valuation.

Napoli’s lawyers have fiercely contested the charges, calling the ruling “astonishing,” arguing that prosecutors misapplied accounting principles, and emphasising that “Napoli gained no financial advantage” from either deal.

The club issued a strong statement reinforcing their confidence, citing independent technical reports that confirmed the accuracy of their bookkeeping. They further stressed that a similar charge tied to the same investigative file was dismissed for Inter.