Spalletti said 'no', however. After thinking about it for a few days, he has maintained his original idea of taking a sabbatical year after winning the scudetto with Napoli.
In the Italian city, the Tuscan coach is a true idol now having won the third league title in the club's history, the first after 33 years.
Al-Hilal's first offer, in writing, was 13 million per season (no taxes are payable there, so we are talking about net amounts). The president then went up to 20 million per season, guaranteed by the bank. That is roughly equal to the amount he would have earnt at Napoli for 8 years (he was paid 2.5 million per season).
When told of the offer, Spalletti asked for a couple of days to think about it. After some time, he turned down the eye-catching offer.
At the age of 64, he preferred to stay with his family rather than embark on an Asian adventure, even if it meant turning down an exorbitant amount of money.
His exact reply was: "Thank you very much for the offer. I've never been offered anything like this before but I'm sticking to my original idea and I prefer to stay with my family."
