Once you admit it, the next time it’s a barrage of compliments. At first, he looked at Kim Min-jae (27, SSC Napoli) with skepticism, but now he is an avid fan.

According to Italian media Calcio Napoli 24 on the 30th (Korean time), Costacurta said, “Looking at Kim Min-jae’s performance this season, it seems like I’m looking at Kalidou Koulibaly (32, Chelsea) from the past. I think he can reach this level. I was really surprised that I didn’t think about it.”

The comments came after watching the 20th round of the league, Napoli’s 2-1 win over AS Roma on the same day. In this match, Kim Min-jae started as a center back and played full-time to lead the team to victory. AS Roma strikers such as Paulo Dybala and Tammy Abraham were tied to Kim Min-jae and were unable to use their strength, and Whoscored.com, a European soccer statistics site, gave him a high rating of 7.0 for his excellent defense.

Costacurta had doubts about Kim Min-jae’s skills in the past, so the change in his attitude is even more interesting. In October of last year, at the beginning of the season, Costacurta changed his stance in an interview with Sky Sports, saying, “Kim Min-jae was a player who should replace Koulibaly, so there were many questions. have done

Koulibaly is the league’s top center back who led Napoli for seven seasons before Kim Min-jae. During his time Napoli finished second in the league twice, but failed to win the title.

Kim Min-jae entered Napoli as the successor to Koulibaly, but is poised to surpass his achievements in just one season. With this victory, Napoli took a step closer to winning the league with 53 points, 13 points ahead of second place Inter (40 points). Competitors such as Inter and AC Milan were defeated side by side, and luck followed.

Costacurta is a legendary center back who played 663 matches for AC Milan alone, winning seven Serie A titles and five UEFA Champions League titles. He also won the 1994 World Cup runner-up with the Italian national football team. 스포츠토토

After his retirement, he works as a critic and has been evaluated for his cold-hearted evaluations. Even his home team, AC Milan, could not escape his bitter words. AC Milan lost 2-5 in Sassuolo in the same 20th round and fell to 5th place with 38 points.

“In some ways (for AC Milan) qualifying for the Champions League may be more important than winning the title,” Costacurta cynically observed, adding, “In the league title race, it seems the other clubs are helping Napoli in every way.” I saw a high probability.