A delegation from Napoli led by its president Aurelio De Laurentiis met Khvicha Kvaratskhelia on Thursday in Düsseldorf at the Georgian base camp. The two parties were able to exchange their positions in a climate described as relaxed and serene, but no agreement was reached. The Georgian winger is still tempted by PSG, while Napoli have repeated to him that he is untransferable.
It’s no longer a secret, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is PSG’s priority to strengthen its attack this summer. Brilliant against Portugal on Wednesday evening, the Georgian winger is attached to Naples, but had a bad time last season and is not indifferent to the ambitious Parisian project, which also offers him a salary much higher than that which he currently touches or to the one he would touch in the event of extension in Naples.
About ten days ago, his agent and his father announced on Georgian television that the plan was to leave this summer to join a club playing in the Champions League, which will not be the case for Napoli. A media outing which put Napoli in all its states since Aurelio De Laurentiis at the same time promised his new coach Antonio Conte that Kvara would not move.
“I don’t know yet if I’m going to stay in Naples”
The new Napoli coach wants to place Kvara at the heart of his project and repeated Wednesday during his presentation to the press that he had obtained assurances from his president to keep the Georgian this summer. “Did Conte say I would stay? I don’t know yet if I will stay. I respect Conte because he is one of the best coaches in the world. I want to take a few more days to think about it, I will decide after the Euro. I respect and love Napoli, but I still can’t give a definitive answer about my future.”Kvara replied on Wednesday evening, after his country’s historic qualification for the last 16 of Euro 2024.
The day after this outing, which worried Neapolitan supporters, Aurelio De Laurentiis took a private jet to Düsseldorf to meet Kvara and his agent. A long-planned meeting. The president of Napoli was accompanied by his sporting director Giovanni Manna, his right-hand man Andrea Chiavelli as well as two lawyers. Kvara was him with his agent Mamuka Jugeli, but without his father Badri.
De Laurentiis met Kvara and his agent on Thursday
All these nice people talked for several hours and according to the echoes of the Italian press, the discussion took place in a relaxed and serene atmosphere. Kvara repeated his doubts and his attraction to the offer of PSG, when the Napoli directors reaffirmed to him that they were absolutely counting on him and had no intention of selling him, either to PSG or to another club.
According to the Italian press, Napoli made it clear to the player that he would not be sold and that if he did not want to extend his contract with a better salary, he would be kept on his current contract. “Yesterday, the parties did not delve into the purely economic aspect: above all, Kvara exposed his doubts and De Laurentiis his certainties”summarizes Corriere dello Sport.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Kvara and his agent have in any case appreciated the initiative of the Neapolitan president to go to Germany to warm up the relationship. “Everything was focused on the desire to underline and reconfirm the centrality of the striker in the Neapolitan project, strengthened in its ambitions by the arrival on the bench of Antonio Conte. The extension of Kvara’s contract will be discussed at the end of the Euro. Yesterday it was important to reactivate the harmony that was the dominant basis of the relationship before the latest tensions following Napoli’s disastrous post-Scudetto season.”explains the daily life on pink paper.
Naples still far from Kvara’s demands
If the two parties did not talk about figures yesterday, Napoli visibly came out of this meeting reassured and a new meeting is planned after the Euro between the parties to discuss an extension until 2029 with the insertion or not of a release clause. According to Corriere dello Sport, there is however still a big distance between what PSG offered the player (11 M€/year with bonuses according to this source), what Napoli offers him (5 M€/year with bonuses) and what the agent demands to extend (7 M€/year plus bonuses).
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, which points out that Kvara currently earns €1.5 million per year, it is believed that the player is asking for around €6 million per year from Naples. “On the Naples side there is a desire, reiterated by De Laurentiis himself, to try to satisfy the striker’s demands”assures the Italian daily.
A file blocked at PSG
In France, France Bleu Paris journalist Bruno Salomon also discussed the Kvara case on Thursday on the set of L’Equipe de Greg and assured that PSG wanted to make a big move this summer on the transfer market and had made progress on the Georgian’s case.
But according to the well-informed @Djameel_, the Kvara file has not really progressed on the PSG side since the agreement reached with the player’s entourage. “The player’s clan wanted to use the press to try to get things moving since the file was blocked, but it didn’t really work and Naples is still not a seller”explains the latter, not very optimistic.
In this Kvara case, which has been fueling the Parisian headlines for several weeks now, the ball is in Aurelio De Laurentiis’ court. If he is determined to keep his star at all costs, PSG will not be able to do anything. And since he promised Conte to keep Kvara, it is difficult to imagine him disavowing himself in this case.
