The approach was confirmed on Thursday by transfer reporter Fabrizio Romano, who said the Eredivisie champions had been on the phone to the Belgian midfielder over recent weeks.
“PSV has called De Bruyne over the past few weeks to address his situation,” Romano told Caught Offside, in comments carried by Yahoo Sports.
He said the message was that De Bruyne could live closer to Belgium again and leave a Napoli dressing room where life has become harder than it looked when he arrived.
Why Napoli might let him leave
In the Netherlands, Eindhovens Dagblad reporter Rik Elfrink framed the interest in similar terms. Elfrink wrote that PSV would not have to pay a “huge transfer fee” for a player whose Napoli contract runs only until June 2027, but would still have to put a competitive salary on the table. De Bruyne has worked for years with PSV physio Eddy Pepels through the Belgium national team, and according to Elfrink’s reporting, has been receptive to the overture.
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Massimiliano Allegri, who replaced Antonio Conte in the summer, sits 10th with 15 points from 11 games, well off the pace set at the top of the table.
De Bruyne himself has four Serie A goals from 11 appearances this season, so the problem is not his output. Italian reporting points to dressing-room friction, and Football Italia notes that a mutual termination is one of the options on the table, framed more as wage relief than as a transfer that would bring Napoli real money.
The Champions League hitch
Even if PSV close a deal in the first week of January, their new signing will not be available in the Champions League league phase. UEFA’s winter rules allow each surviving club to register a maximum of three new players for the knockout rounds, with squad changes due by 24:00 CET on 5 February.
De Bruyne could be one of those three, but only if PSV come through the league phase first. That alone turns a winter move into a bet partly on next season, with the midfielder’s current contract already due to expire on 30 June 2027.
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PSV are not the only name
Romano said other clubs are circling the Belgian, “also from the MLS”, and English reporting has added Everton to the list of winter options. None of those approaches has produced an agreement either.
For now, the hard line in the calendar is UEFA’s 5 February squad-change deadline. If PSV want De Bruyne in their knockout-round squad, that is when the move has to be done.
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