Kalidou Koulibaly admits his Chelsea transfer is ‘on the right track’ amid reports he will pull out of Napoli’s pre-season training, where he was set to arrive this evening.
The Senegal international is by all accounts on the verge of completing a €40m move to Stamford Bridge this summer, with multiple sources including La Gazzetta dello Sport and The Athletic maintaining Chelsea have agreed both the fee and personal terms.
Now he has broken his silence with a comment to French reporter Romain Collet-Gaudin.
“I can confirm later, but it is on the right track,” was his response to a direct question about the Chelsea talks.
Koulibaly was set to arrive at Napoli’s pre-season training camp in Dimaro this evening, but there are already suggestions things are moving so rapidly that he might not turn up at all.
It would make the situation a lot more difficult if he were to arrive, be greeted by the fans and then pack up to leave immediately afterwards.
Napoli fans are already furious with President Aurelio De Laurentiis for letting Lorenzo Insigne and Dries Mertens leave as free agents, now Koulibaly could depart after rejecting a pay cut to extend the contract that runs to June 2023.
According to reports, Chelsea are offering him €8m per season net plus €1m in bonuses – €3m more than the wages Napoli are proposing for the 31-year-old.
It’ll be either a four-year contract, or three years with an option for a fourth, claim Sportitalia.
Juventus were also interested, but Napoli would rather not sell to their arch-rivals.
Welcome to the club of legends
He made the correct and wise move to avoid the 1996 CL winners. First Rudiger snubbed them. Easy choice (14-2), and Koulibaly was not prepared to face the abuse from the Napoli fans, to go and learn 1 mph calcio.
Chelsea’s fans are quite openly racist and made headlines by pushing a Black man off a Metro train in Paris in 2015, while chanting, “We’re racist, and that’s the way we like it.” That incident is easily found on the internet.
I wish Koulibaly well, but don’t think Chelsea will be a good choice.
I knew he wouldn’t join Juve and I respect his choice.
I just hope it was his own choice and not due to fear of backlash.
@Joel Parkes, stop smearing the Chelsea fan base. Every club has its bad eggs. Italy is not accustomed to foreigners, but that does not mean everyone is bad. In life you get good and bad in every ethnicity. Now talking about football, he made the right choice. Going to Juve would have brought out the vitriol from the Napoli fans. Racism would be a factor but @Lord is right today. Chelsea are way off from winning the PL, but they can attract top stars and he probably wanted to test himself in the most competitive league in the world. Money also helps as well.
Kieran –
To smear someone is to make a false accusation. There is nothing false about my post.
Again Joel, respectfully you are cherry picking up on what is a fact based on that incident. However I have been to the Bridge and never seen such behaviour. I have seen Nigerians, Chinese and other nationalities at the ground and never seen hate from the Chelsea fans. Maybe that is my experience but I have been there about a dozen times.
I second @kieran sentiments. I too have been to the bridge many times and it is the most multi ethnical fan base in England. To call Chelsea fc racist is ludicrous on so many levels… His made the best choice by a mile…
terimakasih atas informasinya
Kieran and DINO Baggio –
You both have more experience than Chelsea, so I bow to that. I hope for Koulibaly’s sake that your estimation of Chelsea is correct. Cheers.
Sorry – last post should read “with” Chelsea . . . . Sorry.