Harry Diamond
Any side interested in signing Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly this summer will have to pay a world-record fee for a defender, with the Italian side’s president setting a price-tag of €100m for the highly-rated centre-back.
Koulibaly has been strongly linked with a host of European football’s leading clubs following his impressive performances at the heart of the Napoli defence, the Senegal international amongst the most sought-after defenders on the continent in recent years.
Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool have all been linked with the 28-year-old in recent months and Napoli president, Aurelio De Laurentiis, has suggested he will allow Koulibaly – and in-demand Spanish midfielder Fabian Ruiz – to depart should the club receive a offers too good to refuse.
“Fabian still has three years left, Koulibaly two. Where is the problem? If City or United or PSG with €100m (£90m) showed up, I would think about it and it is probable that they would leave, always if their will was to leave,” he told Corriere dello Sport.
“I don’t even consider an offer of €60m (£55m). I am solid, if I wanted to win the Scudetto at any cost today I would find myself with three, four hundred million debts.
“I look around and see companies at 500, 600 million, less a billion. I don’t owe anyone a s**t.”
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