Mertens pledges future to Inter?

By Football Italia staff

There are reports Napoli striker Dries Mertens has already agreed to join Inter as a free agent next summer for a salary of €6m per season.

According to Sunday’s edition of the Corriere dello Sport and Gazzetta dello Sport, the Belgian has worked out basic personal terms to remain in Serie A, albeit at San Siro with a Nerazzurri jersey.

It’d be a two-year contract with option for a third, worth €6m per season, including various bonuses.

As he’ll be 33 by the end of this season, the deal could also include provisions for a future spell at Inter’s sister club Jiangsu Suning in China.

Mertens has been at Napoli since 2013 when he arrived from PSV Eindhoven, but his contract is due to expire in June 2020.

President Aurelio De Laurentiis has repeatedly suggested he does not want to keep Mertens on his current salary and would only sign him – and Jose Callejon – to a new deal at a vastly reduced rate.

Mertens will be free to start negotiating a contract with another club from January and the Corriere dello Sport maintains he has already been approached by Antonio Conte’s Inter.

With that in mind, Napoli could try to sell Mertens in the January transfer window to at least make back some money.

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