Pagliuca: Inter should have signed Atalanta’s Zapata

Former Sampdoria and Italy goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca has said that he would have signed Duvan Zapata from Atalanta to replace Romelu Lukaku at Serie A champions Inter instead of Edin Dzeko.

The Nerazzurri had to sell Lukaku and wing-back Achraf Hakimi at the end of the 2020/21 Serie A season and coach Antonio Conte left, but the 54-year-old still praised the club for the reinforcement they brought in.

“I think that with the goodbyes of Conte, Lukaku and Hakimi they have weakened a bit, but not by much,” Pagliuca said to La Gazzetta dello Sport.

“In attack I would have preferred Zapata, but the club have been good at getting functional players.

“Dzeko still has two high-level seasons ahead of him, [Denzel] Dumfries at the European Championship showed he knows how to do it, [Joaquin] Correa is the right man, [and] the good speed to sign [Hakan] Calhanoglu for [Christian] Eriksen deserves an applause.”

Inter had bought Pagliuca from Sampdoria in 1994 and he went on to play with the Nerazzurri for five seasons.