Jan Paul van Hecke has been a regular at Brighton & Hove Albion since the start of last season.
The centre-back’s performances for the Seagulls saw him make his debut for the Netherlands in September. He missed October’s international break due to an injury and returned to the national team squad last month.
Van Hecke’s rise at The Amex saw Brighton reward him with a new contract [until 2027] at the end of last year.
The 24-year-old has now emerged as a new target for Napoli if TuttoMercatoWeb are to be believed.
Amir Rrahmani and summer signing Alessandro Buongiorno have been the first-choice central defenders for Antonio Conte, with Juan Jesus and Rafa Marín as other two centre-backs at the Serie A side.
Jesus could leave the Naples club in the winter market while the manager has left Marín out of his core plans. Conte has ‘clearly asked’ Napoli for a new centre-back next month and they have added the Brighton player to their list.
It’s claimed Fabian Hürzeler’s side value the defender at €20m and therefore it will ‘not be easy’ for Napoli to sign the Netherlands international.
Brighton will obviously much more than the price quoted by TMW, if they decide to sell Van Hecke. And that’d be when this idea dies.
