Paper talk: Maldini and Man Utd records face threat, Barça academy graduate linked with Serie A move

The week-end’s action in Europe is just around the corner with every European club that will play between Saturday and Sunday ahead of the last International break of the year. Serie A giants Napoli will face Chievo away on Sunday but the partenopei will have to do without their injured star Faouzi Ghoulam who will undergo a knee surgery this morning and is set to face a 4/6 months lay-off.

The azzurri are already looking for a possible replacement for the Algeria International who is also negotiating a new deal with the club given that his current deal expires in June 2018.

According to today’s edition of Il Corriere dello Sport, Napoli have set their sights on Benfica full-back Alex Grimaldo, a Spanish defender who had already been linked with a move to Liverpool. Grimaldo is a graduate of the Blaugrana’s academy but he left the Camp Nou in summer 2016 to join Benfica. Napoli are aware that it is never easy nor cheap to sign a player from the Portuguese side and that’s why they have also targeted Sime Vrsaljko (who mainly plays on the right) and Bologna’s Adam Masina. One of them could join the San Paolo in the January window.



Meantime there are two records that could soon be beaten in Serie A. Let’s start with Paolo Maldini’s one. The former AC Milan legend is the player with the most appearances in Serie A (647), Gigi Buffon follows him with 627. This means the Juventus goalkeeper can still leapfrog Maldini on top of this special table to become the player with the most appearances in Italy’s top flight.

This coming Sunday Wojciech Szczęsny is expected to play against Benevento but Tuttosport points out that Max Allegri will give Buffon the chance to set a new record in Italian football in the coming games. There are still 26 games left before the end of the season and Szczesny has already played three Serie A games so far this season.

A record of Manchester United is also under threat although the record of the Red Devils is not as positive as Maldini’s. The Premier League giants, in fact, are the only club in history to have lost 12 games in a row in Europe. The record is dated back to the 1930 and Benevento could equal it on Sunday as they travel to Turin to face Juventus.