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Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis has said captain Marek Hamsik has joined Dalian Yifang of the Chinese Super League.
De Laurentiis, speaking ahead of Napoli's Europa League game against Zurich on Thursday, said Hamsik “has gone.”
No financial details were released but local media reports say Dalian paid 20 million euros for Hamsik, who signed a three-year contract worth 9 million euros a year.
De Laurentiis says, “If it's a 'goodbye' or a 'see you later' depends only on him. I hope we have the chance at the end of the Chinese season to have him back for a proper goodbye to the fans.”
Hamsik, 31, joined Napoli in 2007 and scored a record 121 goals for the club, surpassing the 115 goals scored by Diego Maradona in December 2017.
Show all 10 1 /10The 10 strangest January deadline day transfers The 10 strangest January deadline day transfers Andrey Arshavin – Zenit to Arsenal, 2009 The deal to sign Russian international midfielder Arshavin, who went on to score 23 goals in 105 appearances for the Gunners, was a long drawn out dramatic affair that appeared would never cross the line on deadline day ten years ago with the deal not officially ratified until February 3 owing to the Premier League checking whether all necessary paperwork had been completed in time.
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The 10 strangest January deadline day transfers Benjani Mwaruwari – Portsmouth to Manchester City, 2008 Lots of layers to this one, so bear with me. Reports have it that Zimbabwe striker Benjani fell asleep in Southampton airport on deadline day subsequently missing two flights on his way to signing for City, causing the deal to almost be scuppered as time nearly ran out to get the paperwork sent off. It was later sanctioned by Premier League officials but only after City had tried to back out of the deal.
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The 10 strangest January deadline day transfers Peter Odemwingie – absolutely nowhere, 2013 Odemwingie, who had a transfer request to leave West Brom rejected days earlier while the club also rejected a bid from QPR, drove to Loftus Road seemingly in the belief that a transfer was imminent. The only problem was, it wasn’t. In a bizarre misunderstanding, Odemwingie was barred from entering and had to drive all the way back without his desired move.
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The 10 strangest January deadline day transfers Rafael van der Vaart – Real Madrid to Tottenham, 2010 It was an anxious wait to see if Dutch midfielder van der Vaart would join Spurs in 2010 when a paperwork problem, as always seems to crop up, put the move in jeopardy. The Premier League, though, granted special dispensation for the transfer to go through after looking into the technical problems that hampered it.
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The 10 strangest January deadline day transfers Andy Carroll – Newcastle to Liverpool, 2011 Fresh from losing Fernando Torres to Chelsea in a record-breaking £50m transfer to Chelsea earlier on deadline day Liverpool pressed the big red button labelled ‘PANIC’ and signed Carroll for a club record £36m, the paperwork eventually being completed just minutes before the deadline.
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The 10 strangest January deadline day transfers Mike Arteta – Everton to Arsenal, 2011 Players have also swayed late moves in their favour as in 2011 with Everton midfielder Arteta. The Spaniard had been the subject of several early offers from Arsenal, deemed too low, but Arteta played his hand very late on deadline day, telling Everton he wanted to leave and would take a pay cut if necessary.
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The 10 strangest January deadline day transfers Hatem Ben Arfa – Newcastle to Hull (loan), 2014 Hull left it very late to complete the signing of Ben Arfa on loan in January 2014. The Frenchman was given permission to leave Newcastle late on deadline day and, to make matters worse, he got lost on his way to Hull, but eventually turned up at 11.30pm.
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The 10 strangest January deadline day transfers Benik Afobe – Bournemouth to Wolves (loan), 2018 Deadline day confusion can become too much sometimes and this proved the case for Bournemouth man Afobe who revealed that he cried tears of joy after his return to Wolves was confirmed 20 minutes before the window shut in 2018, with the deal pendulum swinging between being on and off several times on the day.
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The 10 strangest January deadline day transfers Jack Hendry – Dundee to Celtic, 2018 Dundee defender Hendry was another to be signed on deadline day with mere moments to go as Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers left it extremely late in dramatically swooping for the rival defender with bitter enemies Rangers prepared to hijack the deal on the day as it appeared that Celtic were going to miss out.
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The 10 strangest January deadline day transfers Louis Rooney – Plymouth to Hartlepool (loan), 2017 It might not be the most headline of signings on a January transfer deadline day but it may be one of the latest. With just 17 seconds to go before the 11pm deadline the deal to sign striker Rooney was officially finalised.
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He also made 520 appearances, the most in club history, and has made a record 111 appearances for Slovakia.
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