Napoli close in on De Bruyne as Conte decides to stay with Serie A champions

Napoli are close to signing Kevin De Bruyne as a free agent as the Serie A champions also managed to keep hold of their title-winning coach Antonio Conte.

Asked by reporters late on Thursday night, Napoli’s sporting director Giovanni Manna said that De Bruyne was “pretty close” to joining Romelu Lukaku, Scott McTominay and Billy Gilmour in moving to Italy from the Premier League.

Earlier this month De Bruyne ended a 10-year spell at Manchester City, where he won six Premier League titles and the 2023 Champions League.

De Bruyne, 33, will have Conte as his coach after he and Napoli ended weeks of speculation by confirming that he would stay to defend the Scudetto.

Conte had been tipped for a return to Juventus, where he spent the bulk of his trophy-laden playing career and won three league titles as a coach, after publicly bemoaning the running of the club by film mogul owner Aurelio De Laurentiis.

“At the end of every season coach and club always get together to assess the past season, to see if there is a shared vision and if there is still desire to continue towards certain goals,” Conte told Sky Sport.

“We have a contract and seeing as we have a shared vision, we don’t have anything else to add. We’re moving forward because we’re serious people.”

Conte, who has a contract until 2027, has revolutionised Napoli since taking charge of a club still reeling from a disastrous defence of the 2023 league title which ended with a 10th-placed finish.

The 55-year-old has got the best out of Lukaku and in particular McTominay who took to Napoli and Naples like a duck to water after arriving from Manchester United.