Who is Arsenal-bound director Micheli? Napoli career and top signings – Football Italia

epa10532116 Napoli’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (L) interacts with teammate Victor Osimhen after scoring the 0-2 goal during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Torino FC and SSC Napoli, in Turin, Italy, 19 March 2023. EPA-EFE/ALESSANDRO DI MARCO

Napoli chief scout Maurizio Micheli is expected to join Andrea Berta at Premier League leaders Arsenal, but who is the Partenopei executive and which signings have been his most impressive? 

Arsenal set to poach Napoli chief scout Micheli 

According to various outlets in the UK, Micheli is set to leave his position as head of Napoli’s scouting department in order to join Arsenal. According to The Athletic, fellow Italian executive Berta, appointed Arsenal’s sporting director in March, is the man responsible for identifying Micheli. 

As Alfredo Pedullà reports, Micheli has been considering a fresh start away from Napoli after being part of the set-up that won the Serie A title twice within three years in 2022-23 and 2024-25. 

Micheli began his scouting career with Udinese in 1996, and later went on to spend nine seasons with Brescia between 2001 and 2010. He went on to join Napoli as a scout in 2010, before joining Hellas Verona in 2015 and then Bologna in 2016. In 2018, he would return to Naples in the role of chief scout, a role that he has held for the last seven years. 

During the last seven years, Napoli have won the Serie A title twice, have qualified for the Champions League on five occasions and have produced two Serie A MVP winners in Victor Osimhen and Scott McTominay. 

Having been in charge of the Napoli scouting department for the last seven years, Micheli has overseen the signings of most of the club’s last two sets of Scudetto winners. 

That includes the signings of captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo from Empoli in 2019 Stanislav Lobotka, Amir Rrahmani and Victor Osimhen in 2020, Matteo Politano and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa in 2021, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Kim Min-jae and Giacomo Raspadori in 2022, plus Scott McTominay, Billy Gilmour, Alessandro Buongiorno and Romelu Lukaku in 2024. 

Micheli has also been credited with the signing of Marek Hamsik at Udinese. The Slovakian holds the record for the most appearances in Napoli history, and was briefly the club’s all-time leading goalscorer. 

As per James Horncastle, Micheli was also responsible for discovering the likes of Aasamoah Gyan and Sulley Muntari while at Udinese.