Napoli have confirmed Antonio Conte has officially left the club after an agreement was reached to terminate his contract early. 

Conte had already revealed he would be leaving the club once the 2025-26 season came to its conclusion, but was only fully established on Thursday. 

The 56-year-old, who led the Partenopei to their fourth Serie A title last term, had a year left on his current deal but has been released early. 

It has been reported that Conte is the leading candidate to replace Genarro Gattuso as Italy's new head coach, while Massimiliano Allegri has been tipped to land the Napoli job. 

"SSC Napoli announces that an agreement has been reached with Antonio Conte and his staff to part ways before the natural expiry of their contracts," read a club statement.

"We would like to thank the coach and his backroom team for their excellent work. We wish them the very best for the future and the next challenges they face in their careers."

After a stunning debut season with Napoli, where they won only their second Scudetto in the post-Diego Maradona era, Conte's side came up short in their title defence. 

They finished second behind champions Inter, though they did beat Bologna in the Supercoppa Italiana final, which was their only piece of silverware. 

Napoli ended the league season with 76 points, the first time a team coached by Conte has ever failed to bring up 80 points in a single Serie A campaign.

Considering Europe's top five leagues, only with Chelsea in 2017-18 (70) and Tottenham in 2021-22 (71) has Conte ever accrued fewer points in a season. 

However, Conte's 62% win rate in Serie A with Napoli is the third highest of all Partenopei coaches, behind only Maurizio Sarri (69%) and Luciano Spalletti (68%).

Allegri is reportedly close to agreeing a two-year contract to replace Conte after being sacked by AC Milan following their failure to qualify for the Champions League. 

Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis refused to reveal whether Allegri was the man to take over from Conte, but said an announcement of the decision would be imminent. 

"Napoli doesn't even have a coach at the moment, and even if we did, we couldn't announce it. You know the rules. It's pointless to make a mess," De Laurentiis said. 

"I will introduce the coach when the regulations allow me to. I'm not one to go against the rules.

"I can disagree with them, because sometimes they were made at a certain time and become outdated. We agree to play in a competition that has rules, and so we respect them.

"When the time comes to announce the coach, we will announce it."