With Napoli slapping a €40m price-tag on Kalidou Koulibaly, clubs are lining up with offers including Chelsea and PSG, but Barcelona want him to wait until they balance the books.
The Senegal international has been at the club for eight years and was seen as their future captain after Lorenzo Insigne walked away as a free agent towards Toronto FC.
However, no agreement has been reached on the contract that expires in June 2023, so a summer sale is now far more likely.
Multiple sources have Napoli setting a €40m price-tag on the defender, although some even go so low as €30m for the man who turns 31 this month.
According to le10sport, new Paris Saint-Germain director of sport Luis Campos has already made his first approach towards K2, while La Gazzetta dello Sport suggested Chelsea were ready to offer €10m net per season – double the salary Napoli are proposing.
Meanwhile, Diario Sport maintain Barcelona would be Koulibaly’s first choice, but they are struggling financially and cannot make a formal bid until they have sorted out their cash flow problems.
It is reported they have asked the defender to stall for at least two or three weeks while they resolve their issues.
Napoli begin their pre-season training on July 8 and could well still have their most important player hanging in the balance.
#FCB🔵🔴
⏳Su agente ha trasladado al Nápoles que la oferta blaugrana se demorará entre dos y tres semanas https://t.co/E2zxiM4wyT
— Diario SPORT (@sport) June 10, 2022
Great way to be successful in the UCL
Napoli make it back to champions league then decide instead of adding additional pieces lets get rid of our best player plus half our starting line up. It is hard to be a Napoli fan with ADL leading the way. Spalletti specifically stated he wanted Koulibaly, Mertens, and Ospina to return and ADL doesn’t bring any back. What a joke. Spalletti is going to be gone after next year when they finish 7th and they’ll have to start all over again.
@naples 15
koulibaly is in the last year of his contract, he does not want to renew so the only solution is to sell and avoid losing him for free next year. Mertens is 35 years old and he is not the guy he was. Ospina case is different because Meret is terrible – he should renew with a decent offer