Senegal coach Aliou Cisse has responded to Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis, claiming that he won’t sign players who would participate in the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
Cisse guided Senegal to their first-ever AFCON triumph in Cameroon earlier this year.
De Laurentiis stated that he would only sign players from the continent if they agreed to waiver the AFCON tournament.
However, the 46-year-old mentor came guns blazing at the Napoli president stating international football is ahead of club football.
“A football player can play for 12 teams, say, but will only have one national team,” he told BBC Sport Africa.
“Clubs will never be above our flag and our national teams. And every Senegalese who play in Europe, wherever he will be, if he is competent, I will call him to defend the nation’s colours.
“I have a lot of respect for (De Laurentiis), but I challenge them to try not to recruit African players.”
The Italian club has three African players in their squad, talking about the likes of Nigeria’s Victor Osimhen and Cameroon’s Zambo Anguissa.
The Lions of Terenga boss reckons European clubs single out African countries when their players are called up for international games.
“Why should the debate exist only when it comes to African players?” Cisse added.
“When a Brazilian is needed by his federation, there is no debate. And yet we are five hours away from Europe. In South America, they are 17-18 hours away from Europe – but there is no debate.
“Clubs should discuss and share ideas with these players to find the best solution to help both national teams and clubs.
“We aren’t fighting the clubs. I’ve spent seven years here. I have always tried to have a good collaboration with the clubs.”
The former Paris Saint-Germain man went on to say that he experienced a negative attitude towards the AFCON tournament when he travelled to one European club to convince a player to represent Senegal.
“I met the coach and the sporting director, and then they told me, kindly, extremely politely, ‘Your competition is great, but to be honest, we don’t care. What we care about is to have this boy at the end of the season because he represents 25 million euros to play in the Champions League,” he revealed.
“I can understand. I am not shocked at all. But they can understand that when the nation is within its rights, we are allowed to call [up] our players.
“They can believe what they want, but they should let us organise things as we want.”
