Sassuolo chief Giovanni Carnevali has explained why Gianluca Scamacca rejected interest from Paris Saint-Germain to sign for West Ham United over the summer transfer window.
Gianluca Scamacca ‘convinced’ West Ham transfer was better fit than PSG move
Giovanni Carnevali has told TuttoMercatoWEB that no Italian teams tried to sign Gianluca Scamacca this summer. Instead, only foreign clubs came calling at the Sassuolo offices for the striker, who joined West Ham United after rejecting interest from Paris Saint-Germain.
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The Hammers agreed a £30.5m fee with the Neroverdi for the Italy international to switch Serie A for the Premier League in July. Scamacca has since settled in slowly to the London Stadium, making just one top-flight start through four appearances totalling 147 minutes.
David Moyes also fielded Scamacca from the off in both of West Ham’s Europa Conference League qualifiers against Viborg. The seven-cap striker further hit the back of the net twice over the two-legs, but is yet to score in the league and missed out on Wednesday to injury.
West Ham are still waiting to see if Scamacca will recover from the injury that stopped him facing Tottenham Hotspur for visiting Chelsea this Saturday. He had his first top-flight start at Aston Villa last Sunday, as the Irons claimed their only league win of the season thus far.
Giovanni Carnevali explains Gianluca Scamacca summer transfer situation
Sassuolo chairman Carnevali has now shared why Scamacca opted to sign for West Ham after also earning interest from Paris Saint-Germain this summer. He had revealed this July that PSG offered €35m (£30.25m) while the Irons bid €40m (£34.5m), via Fabrizio Romano.
There were also differences with the add-ons both sides were prepared to include to agree a transfer. Which West Ham and Sassuolo ultimately settled on at £5m – plus a 10% sell-on clause – on top of an initial £30.5m fee, while Scamacca signed an initial five-year contract.
Carnevali also believes Scamacca accepted West Ham’s offer as the move will provide him with the better platform than Paris Saint-Germain could give to advance his development.
“Inter [Milan] asked us, but I’m talking about last season,” Carnevali noted. “In this market session there was no request from Italian clubs. Maybe because they knew about our financial demands: we always said he would go to a foreign team.
“In addition to West Ham, there was an important interest from Paris Saint-Germain. But we wanted to keep our word, and also the boy is convinced that on a professional level he can have the opportunity to grow even more.”
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