Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis has reportedly invited the agent of Piotr Zielinski, Bartolomej Bolek, to the team’s pre-season training camp to discuss his client’s future amidst widely documented interest from Lazio.
Zielinski has been on Napoli’s books for seven full seasons and was a crucial part of the team’s midfield that helped the club to their first Scudetto in 33 years under Luciano Spalletti in 2022-23.
However, the Polish international’s contract is set to expire at the end of the 2023-24 season and could leave for free if a new agreement isn’t found with Napoli before then.
Lazio are particularly fond admirers of the 29-year-old, even more so after the departure of their own long-term midfield general Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, who joined Saudi side Al-Hilal in a €40m earlier this summer.
According to Calciomercato.com, De Laurentiis is not making life easy for Lazio and has requested €30m to let Zielinski go, even though he has less than 12 months remaining on his current contract.
In an attempt to convince Zielinski to stay, Calciomercato report that the player’s agent has been invited to the team’s pre-season training camp for talks.
Negotiations may not be straightforward for Napoli either though, as ADL would like Zielinski to take a cut on his current annual wage of €4.8m to a figure somewhere between €2.5m-€3m according to Calciomercato’s claims.
They win him the title and he reduces his salary, ADL is the stingiest of all.
If Sarri wouldn’t be so keen on the polish midfielder I would tell Lotito to keep pressing them and cancel before the deadline day.