Michael Folorunsho: Verona manager reacts to call-up of Napoli-owned box-to-box midfielder to Italy squad

Hellas Verona manager Marco Baroni is happy with the call-up of Super Eagles-eligible box-to-box midfielder Michael Folorunsho to Italy's national team ahead of upcoming games against against Venezuela and Ecuador.

The matches are not competitive matches so there is still a possibility of the Napoli-owned player changing national teams without requesting a change of association to Nigeria. 

Although Folorunso has yet to make his competitive debut for Napoli five years after joining the club from Virtus Francavilla, Italy boss and former Napoli manager Luciano Spalletti worked with him on several occasions during pre-season preparations before he headed out on loans to Pordenone, Reggina and Bari.

The 26-year-old has been rewarded for an outstanding season at Hellas Verona by earning his first-ever call up to Italy's senior national team. 

Asked if he's satisfied with Folorunsho's call up to Italy's squad, Marco Baroni said at Saturday's pre-match press conference before his side's meeting with AC Milan: "Today I also touched on this topic with the boys. Now we can't think about individualism or something that goes beyond tomorrow.

"Michael created this possibility with his work, perhaps we even helped him, but at the moment I'm interested in the team.

"We don't think about anything other than tomorrow's performance. Everything you can earn, you earn through what you do in the present. There is only tomorrow for us."

Folorunsho has been involved in three goals (2 goals, 1 assist) in his last three Serie A appearances and three of the four goals he has netted this season were from outside the box.

Of the midfielders plying their trade in Europe's top five leagues, only Reims' Teddy Teuma and  FC Heidenheim's Jan-Niklas Beste (both four) have scored more long-range goals than Folorunsho so far this season.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit: hellasverona.it

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