Kvaratskhelia currently earns $1.6 million per-season at Napoli, which could be bumped up to $4.8 million should he sign his extension, reads the article, publied by FORBES.

“It would be a fair statement to say Napoli’s season has been nothing short of a train wreck. Long since out of the title race and having the worst defence of any Serie A title in the three-points-per-win era, it’s been a season to forget for the Partenopei.

They were eliminated from the Coppa Italia very early on and surrendered meekly to a not-so-good Barcelona side in the round of 16 in the Champions League earlier this month. Moreover, Aurelio De Laurentiis is now on his third manager of the season and star striker Victor Osimhen is more than likely to leave at the end of the current campaign.

The future doesn’t exactly look sparkling for Napoli. However, one bright moment in what has been a horrendous 10 months for the club could be the contract extension of Georgian winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. The 23-year-old hasn’t hit the heights of his first season in Italy when, arriving as a more or less unknown quantity, he tore the league to shreds with his unorthodox trickery and school-boy qualities. In a world of banal wingers who all play the same and give the impression they were all produced in the same football factory, Kvaratskhelia was a throwback to a different age; a time when wingers were wingers and not forwards.

Kvaratskhelia finished last season with 12 Serie A goals and 13 assists, a formidable record by any standard, but it was even more impressive given that he achieved all-but-one of those numbers by the middle of March. Kvaratskhelia tailed off in the final two months of the season but his work had already been done. Napoli were champions of Italy for the first time since 1990 and he’d played an integral role in it.

Like Napoli in general, Kvaratskhelia hasn’t reproduced that same form this season. He’s struggled just like Napoli has struggled, yet he’s still managed 10 league goals and five assists in 27 games. Since Walter Mazzarri was sacked and made way for Franceco Calzona, Kvaratskhelia has once again sprung to life, scoring four goals in the last five games, including a volley against Juventus in the 2-1 win in Naples.

La Gazzetta dello sport states that a new contract extension could be in the offing for Kvaratskhelia this summer. With Osimhen almost certainly about to leave in the next few months, De Laurentiis knows he can ill afford to let his other prized asset leave in the same transfer window, and so talks are due to begin on a new deal.

Kvaratskhelia currently earns $1.6 million per-season at Napoli, which could be bumped up to $4.8 million should he sign his extension. His current deal runs to 2027, but it’s likely another year or two would be added to the deal. Like we saw with the Osimhen contract renewal, there would be a release clause inserted into the deal, and likely only applicable to clubs outside of Italy, for fear of losing him to one of the big three in Italy.

With Italy likely to be granted a fifth Champions League spot due to the performances of their teams in Uefa competition this season, Napoli still has an outside chance of qualifying and Kvaratskhelia will be pivotal in helping Napoli make up the points on Atalanta, Bologna and Roma with nine games of the season left.

Napoli fans have endured a tough season, but keeping Kvaratskhelia in Naples for a couple of more years would be the best thing De Laurentiis has done this season”, - writes the author of the article.