In January 2020, Diego Demme will leave RB Leipzig and join his favorite club SSC Napoli. Since then, however, things have gone downhill for the midfielder, who has remained completely out of the southerners for the most part of the current season. Two Bundesliga clubs are said to be interested in signing the 31-year-old.
“It’s always been a dream for me. It’s an amazing story to come true!” With these words Diego Demme greeted Napoli in January 2020. To the club in whose shirts his father put him as a child and from which club legend Diego Maradona takes its name.
At the time, the midfielder made no secret of the fact that the move to his SSC Napoli involved an emotional as well as a sporting component. “When I signed my contract, my father shed a few tears. It was a very emotional moment for us,” he said in an interview immediately after his move to the southerners.
Almost three years later, Demme still plays for his favorite club, but in all likelihood it will no longer be a love story. He was already aware of the dimensions of the task when he started: “Many people tell me that I have an important name and that it is difficult to play with. I have to deliver with my name”.
As captain and regular player of a strong Leipzig team, Demme finished third in the Bundesliga with the Bulls in 2019 and made it to the final of the DFB Cup. His manager at the time, Julian Nagelsmann, described him as a player who “from a sporting point of view should never have been given up”.
Joachim Löw also invited Demme to the national team. He was already in the squad for a friendly against Denmark at the end of 2017, and shortly afterwards he made his debut for the DFB in a World Cup qualifier against San Marino. In short: Demme was at the peak of his career before moving to Naples, so the interest from the southerners was no coincidence.
Diego Demme: injuries slow him down
And this trend – the rise of an inconspicuous third division footballer to a Bundesliga dimension – should continue even at the beginning of his engagement with Napoli. Although he wasn’t always part of the first team under then manager Gennaro Gattuso, he made a total of 57 appearances in his first year and a half in Serie A. And this despite injuries which saw him sidelined a few times during the season.
But when Luciano Spalletti took over the helm of the Southern Italians in the summer of 2021, the tide turned for Demme. In August, the midfielder tore a medial knee ligament, missing all of pre-season and his first five Serie A matches through injury.
Then Spalletti only used him sparingly, not least because new signing Frank Anguissa from Fulham FC proved to be a solid alternative to top seeds Piotr Zielinski, Stanislav Lobotka and Fabián Ruiz. Only once was he allowed to play a full match in Serie A, in the last third of the season he was fit, but often only sat on the bench. Demme had slipped from top seed to defensive midfield at the fifth option.
A relegation from which he would not recover in the following year and a half. Since then he has made 28 appearances for Napoli, but above all as a substitute from the bench. After all, Demme has been completely out since last summer, he was on the pitch for 19 minutes (three appearances).
But in any case it doesn’t seem to be used, after all Napoli behaves very well even without the services of the 31-year-old. Napoli are the only team in the top 10 European leagues not to have suffered a single defeat. In Serie A they are unchallenged at the top of the table with an eight-point lead, and the starting situations are also brilliant in the Champions League (round of 16) and Coppa Italia (round of 16).
Diego Demme: Two Bundesliga clubs are interested
Now, a year and a half after his contract expired, his departure from Naples seems to be upon us. According to various media reports, several Bundesliga clubs have been dealing with Demme for a long time. While he has also been linked with Napoli’s league rivals FC Valencia and US Salernitana during the World Cup break, while AC Milan are also said to be considering him, interest from Germany seems more concrete .
VfB Stuttgart and Bayer 04 Leverkusen are said to be mainly interested there, but it is questionable to what extent the Swabians in particular could handle the Demme package in financial terms. Loan seems the most likely option, but Napoli will insist on compensation so as not to lose the midfielder on a free transfer in the summer. A decision from which Demme wants a report Gazzetta dello Sport according to the January meeting, the transfer window to Germany is open until January 31st.
At SSC Napoli, Demme’s journey will probably not continue. The only option is to suspend his contract until next summer, after which he and his favorite club will most likely part ways. “Of course he wants to play more. With all due respect to Napoli, if he could play more he would be happy,” adviser Marco Busiello reiterated on Italian radio.
