Every once in a while a team president will come out with some outrageous price tag for one of his star players. Edinson Cavani is that player this time, as Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis valued the Uruguayan striker at a whopping €100 million, theoretically making him the most expensive player in the world.
Will anyone pay for the 25 year old that kind of sum? Not likely. No one in the near future is likely to break Cristiano Ronaldo’s record of €93.9 million when he moved from Manchester United to Real Madrid, unless someone actually manages to convince Barcelona and sell Lionel Messi. I’m not sure anyone can afford something in that price range, especially with the FIFA fair play regulations coming soon, but hypothetically, that’s the only one who can.
Cavani has drawn interest from a few sides this summer, most notably Juventus. Manchester City and PSG have also made a couple of interested noises, nothing more. Cavani has really broken out as one of the best strikes in Italy and Europe since moving from Palermo to Napoli, scoring 49 league goals in 68 matches for the club, helping them to a successful Champion League showing, although the club won’t repeat its visit to the highest level of club soccer next season.
De Laurentiis paid €17 million, so it’s reasonable to believe he won’t let him go for anything less than €25-30 million, especially considering the fact that he believes he can take Napoli back to the top of Italian soccer. Big aspirations don’t go along with selling your best player, while the transfer of Ezquiel Lavezzi to PSG sends a different kind of sign.
Eventually, this is just a deterrent from big clubs who want the striker, who has scored 11 goals in 40 matches for the national side and will partner up with Luis Suarez in Uruguay’s bid for gold in the London Olympic games. If not a deterrent, it’s a way to push up the price, which is never a bad thing.
Cavani is not for sale, but we could let him go for €100 million. This is not his actual value, but his value to me and he won’t leave for less.