David Ospina wants to shine in Italy’s Napoli

David Ospina, goalie of the Colombian team and after two months of negotiations is the new goalkeeper of the Societá Sportiva Calcio Napoli

As is already known, the Colombian goalkeeper David Ospina signed with the Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli due to the preferences of the Italian club by an experienced goalkeeper and with citizenship of the European Union. In addition, the goalkeeper of Antioquia origin could have a better future in the club parthenopeus since their options in the Arsenal of the Premier League were relegated in the shadow of the experienced Petr Cech.

Leer en español: David Ospina quiere triunfar en el Napoli de la Serie A de Italia

The main reason

At the beginning of this transfer market, the Italian club had three options in mind, given that the Italian Alex Merete suffered an injury, leaving the whole with a single change in the ark. According to the Antena 2 chain of Spain, the options at the beginning of July were: Simon Mignolet, Guillermo Ochoa and, of course, David Ospina.

However, the days passed and options were discarded and as this same media reports, the option of 'Memo' Ochoa was quickly ruled out by the Napoli president, Aurelio De Laurentiis, for not being a citizen of the European Union. "Ochoa, however, I do not consider him anymore because he is not a citizen of the European Union and Giovanni Malagó, president of the Italian Olympic Committee, has no intention of changing Italian football," said the Spanish media.

The only one that remained in "competition" was the Belgian goalkeeper Mignolet, but this option did not have any fruit given that and, as reported by Caracol Radio, the Napoli confirmed on August 16, 2018, the hiring of the Colombian. Also days before, Ospina had presented at the concentration of Napoli to perform the respective medical check-ups. That same day the Italian public club on Twitter an image of the netkeeper on his arrival at the club:

Gazzetta – Ospina ha scelto il 25 di Reina, e sui social non è da meno
Pepe Reina sabato sarà al San Paolo, ma stavolta con la maglia del Milan, e tra i pali del Napoli c'è il ballottaggio tra Karnezis e Ospina. Il nuovo portiere arrivato dall'Arsenal, è già pronto per giocar… pic.twitter.com/zWSmBVpsTo

— Il Napoli Online (@ilnapolionline) 21 de agosto de 2018

Maybe you're interested in reading: Juan Guillermo Cuadrado: a player born in the war

Possibilities to stand out?

The first reason was mentioned above, the injury of goalkeeper Alex Meret. With the departure of Italian competition, the only two options were Ospina and the Greek Oretis Karnezis (33 years old). However, as newspaper Pulzo points out, Karnezis did not have a good preseason with Napoli, and as the only available goalkeeper, he had to cover Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund; receiving six goals in both commitments.

On the other hand, according to the newspaper As, Ospina covered with the Arsenal in more than 50 parties, and although it did not have a dream season, it is a good number for a substitute goalkeeper. Added to this, as Gol Caracol points in the last knockout rounds of the Conmebol, the Colombian along with the Argentine Romero were the only ones to play all the matches of that competition. Ospina's average was exactly 1.05 goals per game, a not insignificant figure.

Likewise, he has been the standard of the Colombian national team to reach two World Cups: Brazil 2014 and Russia 2018, with these numbers he is the sole holder of his national team. In contrast, the Greek goalkeeper Karnezis only has the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, in which Greece was eliminated in the second round.

Another reason was explained by the historic English goaltender David Seaman. As FM points out Seaman's words were: " Cech still has great qualities and it's not like he had a bad season or something, he still produces." Instead, his words referring to Ospina were overwhelming: "I do not think Ospina is very happy being number two, because it has been that way for quite some time. It could even be number three, so I guess David wants to play football, you can not spend a big part of your career being a reserve."

In summary, there are three fundamental reasons for David Ospina to be a starter at Napoli: his remarkable performance with the Colombia national team, his experience in clubs and the non-presence of a direct competition of the same level.

LatinAmerican Post | Miguel Díaz

Translated from: 'David Ospina quiere triunfar en el Napoli de la Serie A de Italia'