Club icon Dries Mertens leaves Napoli after nine years. The experienced Belgian’s contract expired last season and no agreement has been reached on a new contract.
Napoli thanks Mertens extensively on social media on Sunday morning for services rendered. The Serie A club said it would like to extend the contract of the 35-year-old attacker, but Mertens would not have accepted the offer.
Thus, after nine years, Mertens’ successful period in Naples is coming to an end. The 105-time international was taken over from PSV in the summer of 2013 and quickly became a permanent fixture in Italy. He played a total of 397 official games for Napoli, scoring 148 times and providing 90 assists.
In June 2020, Mertens became Napoli’s all-time top scorer by trumping Marek Hamsík (120 goals). Lorenzo Insigne is in second place in the eternal ranking with 122 hits. He no longer plays for Napoli.
Mertens won the Coppa Italia twice with Napoli and the Italian Super Cup once. In the competition, the Belgian failed with his team to break through the years of hegemony of Juventus. In 2021 the title went to Internazionale and AC Milan became champion last season.
It is not yet known where Mertens will continue his career. Earlier in his career he played for Gent, Eendracht Aalst, AGOVV, FC Utrecht and therefore PSV. With the Eindhoven team, Mertens once won the KNVB Cup and the Johan Cruijff Scale. On behalf of Belgium, Mertens was active at the European Championships in 2016 and 2021 and the World Cups in 2014 and 2018.