Napoli president reveals that Chelsea defender Kalidou Koulibaly wanted to leave
Speaking in an interview to Radio Kiss Kiss as quoted by popular Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano, Napoli president de Laurentiis revealed that new Chelsea signing Kalidou Koulibaly wanted to leave this summer and he decided to sell him to Chelsea over Barcelona.
The Senegalese defender made the switch from Serie A to Stamford Bridge a few days ago with the Blues beating Barcelona to the signature of the defensive superstar. Koulibaly is expected to be the solution to our defensive crisis next season.
Barcelona and Chelsea have been strangely interlinked throughout this transfer window, vying for the same player. Whilst the Spanish club had the rub of the green with regards to Raphinha, it seems like we got our revenge with Koulibaly’s signing.
It seems like our tussle with the Spanish club is not yet over with both clubs going neck to neck in their pursuit of French centre-back Jules Kounde. Barcelona are trying to hijack our deal for the talented Frenchman and are proving to be a thorn in our plans this summer.
It does not seem to end there with Barcelona already signing Andreas Christensen from us on a free transfer. They are still not done though with the Spanish club trying to sign both Cesar Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso from us this transfer window.
All this seems to make the Napoli president’s words seem sweeter to our ears. Laurentiis revealed that he told Koulibaly that he could not sell him to Barcelona as the Spanish club had no money and chose to sell him to Chelsea instead.
“Koulibaly wanted to leave, I told him: I can’t sell you to Barcelona as they had no money. Then we received a proposal from Chelsea, it was impossible to say no”
The saga aside, Koulibaly is a solid addition to our squad. We all know the pedigree that the former Napoli man possesses as he has shown over the years, establishing himself as one of the best centre-backs in Serie A for some time now.
At 31, he comes at an age when he is at the peak of his powers and Chelsea could not have signed a better player to replace Antonio Rudiger at the back. However, there is still work to do and we surely cannot rest on our laurels and need to sign another defender.
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A deal for Kounde seems to be in the works but yet again, we have the hurdle in the form of Barcelona to conquer. If we manage to do so, then we would have reinforced our defence rather adequately. However, it is wise to have alternate options, in case we fail to sign the Sevilla man.
