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What was it like working with Maradona? I believe you worked on a film with him, right? Some writer came to me saying, Aurelio, do you want to make a film about supporters? I said, I don't know anything about soccer, but if the storyline will convince me and if in Napoli I will have Maradona, probably I will do. So I called to have Maradona, and Maradona came. And it was fantastic. When we met, he told me all his history with his wife. And he was with us for three days and we made the protagonist of the episode set in Napoli. But we didn't shoot in Napoli because I said, if we go to Napoli with Maradona, we never shoot the movie. So we invent some space in Rome as it was Napoli. Everybody is in anxiety. When you must be relaxed to have success, you must be relaxed. You're watching Kicking It, presented by Modelo. My guest today took over a Napoli side. As he said, he would walk the streets of Naples and see more people in Milan, Inter or Juve jerseys than you would Napoli. Since then, he's restored club pride and led the team to two Scudetti, the same as in the Maradona era. President of Napoli, Aurelio De Laurentiis, welcome to Kicking It. Ciao, good evening to everybody. How are you? And to you? I'm very well. It's great to see you here. The same for me. Before we get into the football, I love the story of how you got Napoli. I know you're very successful in the movie industry. It almost feels like a movie. Can you tell us the story behind how you were able to purchase Napoli? In Hollywood, I was in Los Angeles. I was producing and financing one movie with Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law and Jolina Jolie. It was 2004. And as always, at a certain moment, I said, listen, people, I need my three weeks of summer vacation. It was August, so I went to Capri. When I arrived in Capri, they bring me, as always, a newspaper, daily newspaper, and they saw one guy was buying the Napoli for five million euros. Buying? But Mr. De Laurentiis, you don't know. Napoli doesn't exist anymore. It doesn't exist anymore. No, because he went in bankruptcy. He went in bankruptcy. After Maradona, very strange. Do you want to buy? Calm, calm, calm. So I arrive in Napoli from Capri and there was a court because after the bankruptcy, the Napoli team must be in an auction. Do you want to participate? Yes. My son Luigi and my wife said, are you crazy? You don't know anything about soccer. My dear friends, but I know about movie business. What is more difficult than movie business? So for me, it's a new adventure. Very funny. You are impossible. Yes, probably I'm impossible. So I did, I put 40 million dollars on the table and I acquired what? A piece of paper. Where are players? Mr. De Laurentiis, I'm sorry, there is no players. There's no players? No, he was in bankruptcy. Doesn't exist anymore the company. Where is facilities? But no, why you insist? No facilities at all. You must go to the federation and you must ask from where you have to start to play. So I went to the federation. In the federation, people said to me, ah, Mr. De Laurentiis, fantastic to have you with us. Just because it's you, you will start from third division. From third division? Not from Serie A? No, from Serie C. So practically it was a long trip in the south of Italy where I was collecting spit in my hand, violence, menacing, closing myself in the changing room for hours with police protecting me because everybody want to kill me. Because, you know, Napoli never went in Serie C. So for these other teams and supporters, they want to kill us because we were winning and probably we were menacing them. So it was very tough, but it was very, it was like the best movie I did in my life. It was three years to come back to Serie A. But finally, I was very proud of myself because without understanding anything of soccer, little by little, with Humboldt's side, I start to understand more and more and more. And we succeed because we were the only team in Italy participating for 15 consecutive years at the European competition, like Champions League, Europa League. The relation with the supporters worldwide is fantastic. There are 100 million people. That's amazing. We're here in LA right now to celebrate the premiere of the movie. If we could go back in time to 2004, when you bought this team in Serie C and you're saying we only had the balls and the kids, what would you have said to think that you're here today to celebrate winning two Scudetti in these past three seasons? It was very tough because, you know, I think the soccer is too much old. You need to renew because the young generation, they are very speedy. They go with their smartphone. They go to all the games through FIFA. And they have a passion, but they are not passionate. So they don't resist. They don't have the strength to stay and see a match for two hours. If they go to the real stadium, great, fantastic. They participate. But if they must see on TV, there is some stupid stop of 15 minutes between first moment, the second moment of the match, which I don't understand why. You must reduce the time too much. 45 minutes plus 45 minutes. You must do 25 minutes and 25 minutes consecutively, like in the basket with the real time. Here the referee decide how long you have to recoup or not to recoup. So I fight with the federation because this referee was not concretely aware of. Everybody does. There is anarchy. That is not good. It's not for sport. You know, it's not for sport also because that is an industry. So they didn't still understand is an industry of entertainment where we invest a lot of money. Too many people speaks. The agent, for example, seems the owner of soccer. Bullshit. That is incorrect. Agent must be somebody who give a service, not that they owns every day. They blackmail. They ask a lot of money for what? Just to sign a contract and after disappear. Because if a player has a problem, you never know. I know we don't have the responsibility. You know, it's too easy to make money like that. So if you were in charge to make a change, that's what you would do. You would help reduce the game and have some. You know, in 1986, we were only 16 teams in Serie A. After we became 20. But year by year, year by year, year by year, the number of matches explodes. Why? Because everybody want the medal. So UEFA want to make more money. And so they make longer competition for Champions League. And after arrive the king, Infantino, who want to be probably instead of Trump in the White House. So what he does, he make a mondial competition for clubs. Those players cannot just be involved in 70 matches because otherwise they kill themselves. You can do for one year. But otherwise, how they can resist like Modric? Modric is 40 years old. He's a fantastic player. But if you start to say, Dear Modric, will you like to do 70 matches per year? He would say no, absolutely no. What do you say to the people who will argue, oh, there's a lot of money to be made. So that's why players have to play games. That's why clubs continue to push games. You think it has to be restructured? Number one, the money must become money of clubs and not money of federation. That is the first distinguished problem. Because UEFA make too much money and FIFA make too much money for that. They say, no, but we distribute. No, it's not correctly made that. If we make all the analysis, the mathematic analysis, they are lying. They don't say the truth. You're watching Kicking It, presented by Modelo. I know you have a true entrepreneur spirit, so I think you could see sometimes vision before others could see vision. You know where things could go. If we take it back to Napoli, what was more difficult, I wonder, when you were in Serie C? Was it more difficult to get to Serie A with Napoli or was it more difficult when you're in Serie A to win the Scudetto? No, it's not a question to be difficult. The question is, we gross one third of Inter, Milan, half of Juventus, one fourth of Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City, Manchester United. And so it's very tough and difficult to be in competition when you gross a lot of money less than the others. That is a problem. So we are very attentive in managing the club and to manage and to keep down the overhead. And we were, until now, capable to compete and to make the life difficult to others because, in any case, my intuition of Sarri was just an idea I had, which was a winner idea. But otherwise, Benitez, Ancelotti, Spalletti, Conte, that is the cream of the cream. So to convince them to come to work with us, that is a great intuition, great capacity. And we will do also for the future. What were some of those conversations like in the early days? Because I imagine if you get a Benitez, he will demand a lot of players. How did you always manage to find a way to have the players for the coach, but then also sustain a winning project? No, there are certain coaches which like to share the decision for the acquisition of certain kind of players. There are others which leave to you to do as I think is correctly, more correct. For example, with Spalletti, the second year, I fired six or somebody who was ending his contract. I did a renewal and I went on the market and we bought six new players. We won the Scudetto. So Mr. Spalletti just asked me to buy Raspadori. It's the only acquisition. And after Raspadori didn't have a big, big, huge success in the years was with Napoli. You know, it can happen. But that's when a coach come to you and say, you try to please him, okay? To avoid he can always say to you, you see, I said to you to buy that guy. You didn't buy. How? Watch, watch what he's doing. So sometimes you must please him and make him happy. But the reality is you must be organized with your people to understand the market and to understand exactly what you need and what you don't need. Does that sometimes become difficult with certain coaches? Like Antonio Conte, for example, is big personality. You know, a lot of demands. How was that like dealing with him and finding the balance? Antonio Conte, I met in Maldivian islands 10 years ago. We were swimming together. It was fascinating myself with his way to see, you know, in that moment he was winning everywhere, everything, it was fantastic, et cetera, et cetera. So we remain very friend between us. When I had the problem three years ago, I call him and he said, Aurelio, I will come. At the end of the season, I will come because I prefer to start from zero and not to just come inside during the season already began because we don't, I don't know the players. We must sit, we must discuss. And so that's was and he won the Scudetto, the first Scudetto, yeah, we'll see today. Of course, absolutely. That season was incredible to watch, to go from 10th place to then winning the ups and the downs, the players that were scoring the goals. Was there a moment? It was a thriller. Yeah, because the third Scudetto was for a long, long, long time. When it will happen, when it will happen, but it was written, already written. So it was not a surprise. The first Scudetto was a real thriller and that is the most exciting moment when finally you say, I was good. It was not good. I was lucky. It doesn't matter. We won. That's it. What were the emotions you felt when you won the first Scudetto? I was more emotionally involved with the second Scudetto. Really? Yeah, because it was until the last minute. We didn't know. It was like to be in a casino at the table of a shaman. You have eight, I have nine. Incredible. The emotions were fantastic. What was so special about the team? What was it about that team and about Conte and about the group that helped them to win this Scudetto? What was the special sauce in that team? Number one, we had a lot of fantastic players. You know, everybody was playing for the company and for Conte. You would see on the screen, Conte was practically screaming all the time, exciting all the time. Everybody keeping the level very high. I was advising everybody not to show down any sec of their life because if there is any minute of distraction, the others will jump and they will kill you. So that's good from that point of view. He's a big motivator. You say motivator? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. It was a chip on the shoulder of the team. One thing that we love about Napoli is the amount of players that have come through. Fantastic players who play some of their best years. I mean, you look at Cavani, Higuain, Ossiman, Cuada, and now the latest was... Laezzi, Giorgino, Hamsic. Fantastic. It's incredible how you found those players. Let's talk about McTominay for a second because there's few that believed that he could do what he did in Italy. And then to score even the winner against the Cagliari, the Cagliari goal, to sum it up. When you were signing McTominay, did you ever think that he could have been as good as he became? You know, Scott is a real Scotland man, Scottish man. And he's like an actor. Very elegant, very serious. He's a friend. He's a good boy and has a certain kind of culture. He's very good to... There are somebody you don't have an exchange. With him, you can have an exchange. He's fantastic. I met a lot of during these 22 years. You can imagine how many people I found. And Scott has a big personality. He can be an actor. Can you put him in one of your movies one day? Hey, but leave him playing for Napoli. It's better. After maybe. We need him. Yeah. Did you see the quote from Maradona Jr.? The son of Maradona said, Oh, if my father was God, then McTominay is Jesus. But you know, all the family of Maradona is in my heart because Maradona is a monument of us. Mondial soccer is an exception. He's not a normal guy. So all these families, if they ask me to be helped, I'm here to help everybody because I have a great respect of Diego. What was it like working with Maradona? I believe you worked on a film with him, right? Yeah. I imagine when I was completely far from the soccer moment, it was in the 90s, some writer came to me saying, Aurelio, do you want to make a film about supporters? I said, I don't know anything about soccer, but if the storyline will convince me and if we put people from Milan, from Juventus, from Inter, from Rome, from Napoli, probably I will do. And if in Napoli I will have Maradona, probably I will do. So I called to have Maradona, and Maradona came. And it was fantastic when we met. He told me all his history with his wife and he was with us for three days. And we made the protagonist of the episode set in Napoli. But we didn't shoot in Napoli because I said if we go to Napoli with Maradona, we never shoot the movie. So we invent some space in Rome as it was in Napoli. What was it like spending time with him off camera as well? During one evening until two o'clock in the morning, we were speaking and it was great when his wife said, you know, when you were a player, you didn't make the money you could make today because all the salary came up. His answer was, yeah, but I'm very happy. Unfortunately, we have to talk about Italy and the Italian national team, because for a third time, they've missed out on the World Cup. There's probably a lot to be said about the team and the fixes that need to be had. But what was your reaction when we missed the third one? But for that, I'm pushing since many years to come back as 16 teams and not 20 because reducing the number of matches during the season, you have at least two months to train national team, number one. Number two, I want to know why they don't do insurance. You know, in England, you have special insurance with Lloyds. In the movie business, you can insure anything. If you pay, they insure to you anything. Okay, so why they have not to insure UEFA and FIFA if one player injure himself and cannot play anymore in your team? So if he's out for one month, they must give to you X. If he cannot play for two months, X. If he cannot play for one year, they must give back to you the money to buy another similar players, correct? That is the first problem. Second problem, they want our players, they must pay. If the salary I give to one player for 12 months is 10 millions, they keep the player for one month, they must give to me 1 million or not. It's normal. Why gratuitously? It's my property. It's not their property. So there is this strange situation in the sports. We are industry or we are not industry. Because if we are industry, as up to me, must be first division everywhere because the money are too much invested. You must take that in consideration. Why you want, it's too easy for you say, okay, I keep with me 50 players. You make confusion. Or they receive money under the table from agent because they want, they use some players who never been requested to go in national team just because his value became upper, bigger, no? That is not professional. But that is happening many times. Now you must say, what is a normal team? 11 people plus another 11 in case there is somebody who doesn't feel well or is injured. So it's 22 players, no more. Maybe three goalkeeper instead of two. That is just the exception. 23 people, fine. Why 50, 60, 70 make confusion? They don't know. And after who doesn't play, it seems is not take in consideration. So its value is coming down. No, no, it doesn't work. You call me one player who was in Arabia who was not playing with Italian teams for how many months? And in Arabia, they stopped with the war. So he's not training himself. Or you keep people who are playing Italian but are playing in England, are playing somewhere else. No, it doesn't work. Because you must, if I use with Italian mentality and with Italian methodology to train somebody who has a habit to play in England where there is not the same tactic side, you are not, the gimmick is not correct. You understand what I mean? It's not easy to explain that. But up to me, they made a big mistake because the president of federation want to protect himself. The guy who is selected as a coach, he doesn't know where to go, what to say is a big responsibility. It's not, it's an anxiety. Everybody is continuously in anxiety. When you must be relaxed to have success, you must be relaxed. Who do you think can help guide the Italian federation? Do you think there needs to be a restructuring, a proper leader, maybe even a former player like a Maldini or Del Piero who could help? No, up to me have not to be a guy who is a player in the past, who was a player in the past. It must be somebody who can speak politically with government to obtain what never was obtained by politics people. The politics people made only problems to the soccer. So it's the moment to stop them and say, listen guys, listen to us. We need to be with you and you must be with us. So if we need solve a fiscal problem, support problem to make a new stadium, new staff, new politics, new philosophy, you must help us. Otherwise we will not succeed. So today we need some person who has the credibility to take the telephone, to call the prime minister and say, listen, I need that. And the premier minister must say, okay, we will make you happy. That's it. Let's hope that happens for the good of the time. And I trust your judgment being on the inside. Aurelio, it was such a pleasure to speak with you and I'm very excited for your premiere tonight. You bring us very lucky because today we share the match together in my house and we won. So what do you do next time? Anytime you want me. Where you are, you must come back. I pay to you the ticket. Okay. I shake your hand. Okay. Goodbye. Thanks for watching Kicking It, brought to you by Modelo.