Kalidou Koulibaly opens up after completing Chelsea transfer
Chelsea today announced the signing of Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli. He becomes the second signing of the summer for Thomas Tuchel and the first defender to arrive as Thomas Tuchel starts to rebuild his backline.
Koulibaly is said to have penned a four-year contract with the west London outfit, with Chelsea said to pay a fee of £33.8 million to Napoli for the services of the Senegal international. Koulibaly heads to Stamford Bridge after an eight-year spell at Napoli, where he established himself as one of the best defenders in Italy.
The 31-year-old joined Napoli from KRC Genk in 2014. A formidable figure at the back, the centre-back went on to make 317 appearances for the Gli Azzurri spanning eight years at the club. He has become the second signing for the Blues after Raheem Sterling who joined the club earlier this week.
According to football.london, the Senegalese international has revealed that the move to Stamford Bridge is a dream come true. He always had plans of playing in the Premier League and will now do so under the Chelsea banner.
“I’m very happy to be here with this team at Chelsea. It’s a big team in the world and my dream was always to play in the Premier League.”
Koulibaly, who led his country to victory in the Africa Cup of Nations has joined his fellow countryman Edouard Mendy in playing for the Blues. He will also have a reunion with Jorginho, having previously played together at the Italian’s time at Napoli. The two Chelsea stars certainly played their role in the transfer coming to fruition.
“Chelsea came first to get me in 2016 but we didn’t make it. Now when they came to me I accepted it because they really wanted me to come to the Premier League to play for them. When I spoke to my good friends Edou (Edouard Mendy) and Jorginho they made my choice easier.”
Chelsea had missed out on the centre-back in 2016 when Antonio Conte was the manager for the Blues. After a few rounds of negotiations, the deal could not go through as Chelsea failed to meet the £50 million valuation of the player by his now former club. Koulibaly remembers this and recalled the time after signing for the club.
A left-footed centre-back, Koulibaly could be the natural replacement for Antonio Rudiger who departed the club on a free transfer to Real Madrid last month. He could play on the left side in Tuchel’s preferred back three. The Senegal international flew to London for his medical but has now joined his new team-mates in the United States.
Tuchel will know that the backline is still not completely fixed. Signing Koulibaly would be the first of many steps taken to fix his backline before the start of next season. It will be interesting to see whether more new faces at the back join the club by the end of this month.
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Koulibaly is currently in the United States and will join the squad there for pre-season. Blues fans will hope to see their new signing play tomorrow against Club America in their first game of the pre-season. Hopefully, he will prove to be a great signing and help the club win silverware during his time in London.