Napoli’s squad cost tops Serie A, up 27% | OneFootball

Football and Finance - Napoli, the cost of the squad is the highest in Serie A! Increase of 27%...

The cost of Napoli's squad has recorded a millionaire growth for the second consecutive season. The balance sheet weight of the players registered by the Neapolitan club in 2025/26, after the closure of the summer market, increased by just under 54 million euros compared to the 2024/25 season (+27.5% approximately), going from about 195.2 million to 248.9 million euros. In the span of two seasons, the growth has reached almost 100 million euros, making the squad cost the highest in all of Serie A.

To estimate the balance sheet impact of the players - among those permanently present in the squad and those loaned out - Football and Finance considered the gross salaries (when paid by Napoli) and the depreciation quota for each individual player. It should be remembered that Napoli depreciates the costs of the players in decreasing quotas (higher in the first years of the contract and decreasing in the following ones), which is why another rich incoming market to meet Antonio Conte's demands is particularly felt.

In total, the squad currently available to the Salento coach impacts almost 54 million euros more than the one available in the 2024/25 season. As mentioned, the increase was mainly due to the investments completed by the club in the incoming market, with higher costs of almost 117 million euros, not sufficiently offset by lower costs (about 33 million euros, without considering capital gains and loan revenues) and the decrease in depreciation for players advancing in their respective contract years. Expenses that Aurelio De Laurentiis hopes will allow Napoli to win the second consecutive Scudetto, the third in four years.

Compared to last season, Napoli saw 16 players leave, including outright sales, loans that have ended and players loaned out (among those that impact the balance sheet, even those who were out of the squad last season). Among those who have definitively left the club, the heaviest in terms of balance sheet impact are Raspadori and Simeone, without considering the players who have recorded capital gains (such as Victor Osimhen for example). In addition, the Neapolitans also said goodbye to several players who arrived on loan during the January market: goalkeeper Scuffet, midfielder Billing and striker Okafor. There were also several loan exits, which in terms of gross salaries save almost 5.5 million euros.

On the purchase front, seven players arrived on a permanent basis: goalkeeper Milinkovic-Savic (from Torino), defenders Beukema (from Bologna), Gutierrez (from Girona) and Marianucci (from Empoli), midfielder De Bruyne (free after a long experience at Manchester City) and forwards Lang (from PSV) and Lucca (from Udinese). Also arriving on loan were midfielder Elmas (from Leipzig and with a past in blue) and striker Hojlund (from Manchester United), to replace the injured Lukaku.

In terms of salaries - calculated using the data that emerge from sports press rumours and estimating the salaries of the younger players, for which data is not available -, Romelu Lukaku still leads the group with his 6 million euros net (just under 8 million gross thanks to the Growth Decree relief), but the highest cost is that borne for De Bruyne, which exceeds 10 million euros gross.

Therefore, the incoming operations have inevitably weighed down the cost of the Neapolitans' squad and the outgoing players (in addition to the decrease in depreciation for the players in the squad, remembering the particular methods used by the Neapolitans) have not offset this increase. A growth that has led Napoli to become, in the 2025/26 season, the club with the highest squad cost in all of Serie A.

Carlo Gioia

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.