There are at least four separate cliques inside the Napoli dressing room, and Matteo Politano is no longer pretending otherwise.
In his post-match interview after Wednesday’s 4-1 defeat at Porto in the Champions League, the Italy forward turned on his non-Italian teammates.
“It would be nice if a few other teammates came here to give an explanation and not just us Italians, but never mind,” Politano said, per Football Italia’s reporting on the interview.
The result that set him off was a second-half unravelling. Jan Bednarek headed Porto in front in the 11th minute. Scott McTominay replied for Napoli before the break, but Gabri Veiga, Jakub Kiwior and Samu Aghehowa all scored after the interval, according to ESPN’s match report.
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Four groupings, one squad
La Gazzetta dello Sport has mapped the dressing room along national lines. Politano, Leonardo Spinazzola and Giovanni Di Lorenzo form a tight Italian core. Noa Lang and David Neres are paired off, as are Billy Gilmour and McTominay. Alisson Santos and Giovane make up a small Brazilian group. Kevin De Bruyne, Rasmus Hojlund, Stanislav Lobotka and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa are kept to themselves, according to the paper’s reading as relayed by Football Italia.
Juan Jesus, the Brazilian defender who left Napoli on a free transfer when his contract expired at the end of June 2026 after 130 appearances, is being missed as the kind of dressing-room unifier this group now lacks, as Italian reporting on the squad’s divisions has noted.
Lucca tells De Bruyne where to go
The friction is spilling onto the pitch. During the Porto match Lorenzo Lucca rounded on De Bruyne after the Belgian offered an instruction.
“Why are you speaking? F*** off!” Lucca said, per reporting on the broadcast exchange.
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Hojlund publicly contradicts Allegri
The next line of fracture runs between manager and squad. Massimiliano Allegri, appointed in July 2026 on a deal to 2029 after replacing Antonio Conte, tried to argue after the match that the first 70 minutes had been acceptable. Rasmus Hojlund, speaking to Amazon Prime Italia, pulled the other way.
“I disagree; I think, of course, it’s not a bad game. I can agree with this, but we have to stop conceding bad goals, and we have to start winning football matches,” the Denmark striker said, per Yahoo Sports.
“We are in a very dark place right now, and we need to work. Not only players, everybody in the football club needs to take responsibility,” Hojlund added to Amazon Prime Italia.
De Laurentiis orders a lock-in
Aurelio De Laurentiis has responded by calling an emergency camp. Players were told to report to a hotel on Friday and stay together until kick-off on Sunday, an arrangement Napoli do not usually impose ahead of a home league fixture, according to reporting on the owner’s decision.
Kick-off against Lazio at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona is at 12:30pm local time on Sunday. Lazio arrive at the top of Serie A, undefeated away from home this season. Allegri has lost seven of his first fourteen competitive matches in charge.
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