Aurelio De Laurentiis Backs Antonio Conte Amid Speculation
Aurelio De Laurentiis has never been shy about choosing a fight, but on Antonio Conte he is choosing faith.
The Napoli president, speaking amid renewed speculation over Conte’s future, insisted his coach will not walk away from the project he only began in 2024 – the project that has already delivered a Serie A title.
“Antonio Conte is a very serious man. He has a contract with me. He will never abandon me at the last minute,” De Laurentiis said, quoted by The Athletic.
In his mind, the current Napoli side – powerful, abrasive, built in Conte’s image – is proof of that commitment. This is not a team that just happened; it is a construction.
De Laurentiis pushed the point with a vivid metaphor. If Conte were to leave now, he argued, he would be “killing his baby”.
“If he sacrifices himself after two years of creating a very strong Napoli… it is also his creation. So he will ‘kill his baby’, abandoning him just at the last minute,” the president said, underlining how deeply he links the club’s resurgence to Conte’s long-term vision.
Yet the tension is obvious. Napoli are trying to hold onto a coach whose name is never far from the conversation around the Italian national team. The Azzurri job remains one of the most seductive in Italian football, and De Laurentiis knows it.
He did not pretend otherwise.
“Or… he decides immediately and says ‘I would like to go’,” he admitted. That, he stressed, would be the only acceptable way for Conte to leave: clear, early, and decisive. “Then I have the time during April and May to find somebody else to make the substitution.”
The message was blunt. No last-minute drama. No summer chaos. If Conte wants the national team, he must say so in time for Napoli to protect themselves.
“Otherwise, I don’t think Mr Conte will ever abandon Napoli. He’s a serious, professional man. If I was a coach, before to accept, I will think 100 times,” De Laurentiis added, leaning again on the coach’s reputation for intensity and preparation.
This is not the first time the president has opened the door, at least in theory, to a Conte–Italy reunion. Earlier this month, at the Los Angeles screening of the Napoli documentary “AG4IN”, he even floated the idea of a temporary compromise.
“Conte to the national team? Yes, I think I’d lend him if he asked me,” he said then, half-provocative, half-pragmatic.
The remark captured the strange balance he is trying to strike: fiercely protective of his coach, yet realistic about the pull of the Azzurri.
For now, though, the national team remains a distant echo. Conte is locked into the domestic race, driving Napoli through the final stretch of the Serie A season. The defending champions sit second with 66 points from 32 games, nine behind leaders Inter Milan.
Six matches left. Six chances to squeeze every last point out of a campaign that started with the weight of expectation and the shadow of their title defence.
Napoli know the equation. To have any hope of pushing Inter to the line, they must treat each remaining fixture as a final. The next comes on Saturday, against Lazio, a test of nerve as much as quality.
Conte’s future will keep filling headlines. De Laurentiis’s words will be pored over, interpreted, twisted. But until a decision is made – one way or the other – the reality is simple: Napoli still have a season to salvage, a champion’s pride to defend, and a coach who, for now, is exactly where the president insists he will stay.
