The very reason why Partenopei president Aurelio De Laurentiis didn’t satisfy Lorenzo Insigne’s heightened wage demands is because he wants to establish a ceiling for salaries at the club. The EURO 2020 winner was at loggerheads with Napoli regarding his wages and in the end no agreement was reached between the two parties.
Napoli had offered lower than his current €4.5m net per season – putting €1m less than what he earns on the table as an offer.
The long transfer saga ended with Toronto FC winning the race for his signature. He will earn a whopping wage, almost triple his current wages at Napoli, when he moves next season to Canada. It makes him the highest paid player in the history of the American league with a €11.5m net per season, plus €4.5m in add-ons.
De Laurentiis intends to limit players’ salaries to €7m, according to Calciomercato, in order to avoid any more Insigne-like situations, although the club captain may have done with little more than what he earns.
Napoli pay the fifth highest wages of all Serie A clubs, after Juventus, Inter, Roma and Milan.
With the departure of Insigne from the club’s ranks, Napoli part ways with their second-highest earner, after Kalidou Koulibaly, who earns €6m net per season. 30-year-old Insigne intended to become the Napoli’s top earner but instead will pack his bags for Toronto’s glittery package
As Insigne leaves, a lengthy fifteen-year relationship comes to an end at the end of the season. He was signed by Napoli when he was 15 for a paltry sum of €1,500 and made his first-team Serie A debut in January 2010.