Reported Tottenham Hotspur target Paulo Dybala is the closest thing football has to a new Lionel Messi and risks wasting his ‘pure talent’ at Juventus, former Palermo owner Maurizio Zamparini told Radio CRC, via AreaNapoli.
Zamparini is not a man renowned for hiding his feelings.
A man who would make Massimo Cellino look patient, the former Palermo chief sacked no less than 40 managers in 15 years at the Stadio Renzo Barbera.
With his former Rosanero wonder-kid enduring a tough time at Juventus, Zamparini was never likely to keep his mouth shut for long.
Dybala was named the Serie A Player of the Year as recently as 2020. But, thanks to a combination of injuries, illness and the absence of an obvious role in Andrea Pirlo’s team, the Argentina international is suddenly facing an uncertain future at the Allianz Stadium.
The Daily Star reports that Tottenham will be offered the chance to sign a superstar forward who came close to joining Mauricio Pochettino’s Spurs side in 2019; and Zamparini would be thrilled to see a summer departure come to fruition.
“Burning a pure talent like Paulo Dybala was the biggest stupidity made by Juventus in recent years,” Zamparini fumed, adding that he should have sold the 27-year-old to another Serie A giant in 2015.
“Could I have sold Dybala to Napoli? Of course. I’m sorry, because the right place for him is Naples. Juventus is burning Dybala.
“There is not another player so close to Messi. There is only Dybala. He has the characteristics of Messi, but as long as he is left free to do what he wants, as happens in Barcelona.”
According to The Star, Dybala is available for £40 million this summer after rejecting the chance to extend a contract which expires in 2022.
But with Tottenham growing increasingly concerned about his worrisome injury record, Zamparini’s favourite son appears to be lodged firmly between a rock and a hard place.
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