Kim Min-Jae has quickly established himself as the ideal heir to Kalidou Koulibaly, and he’s been particularly dominant in recent fixtures. Napoli acquired him for an affordable sum given his performances, and are now working to remove all outside risks come next summer.
According to Il Mattino, the contract of the South Korean has a flexible €48M clause that can be activated in the first two weeks of July. The Partenopei are in talks with his agent to raise it to €65M, on top of handing him a pay raise.
Kim currently earns €2.5M net and just €3.2M gross since the club enjoys fiscal benefits for foreigners moving to Italy. They signed him by exercising a €20M release clause he had with Fenerbahce. He has featured in almost every game thus far, resting just once. Manchester United already showed interest in January.
While Victor Osimhen and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia generally grab the headlines for their heroics, the Napoli defense has been equally impressive. They have kept five clean sheets in the last six fixtures. They have recently overtaken Juventus for the least number of goals conceded in Serie A.
Our Take on Kim
His nickname ‘The Monster’ couldn’t be more apropos given how well he has shown lately. Substituting Koulibaly was the biggest challenge the Azzurri faced last summer, and they passed it with flying colors. Considering the fees circulating nowadays, €65M is arguably still too low for a player that has more than proven his worth in a challenging situation and league, even though he’s older than the most buzzed-about stars in this position.
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