Kalidou Koulibaly has become the second summer signing for Chelsea, with the Blues shelling out €40 million to secure his services.
Premier League heavyweights have made an official statement to confirm that they have secured the services of Kalidou Koulibaly. The Senegalese defender has penned a four-year contract with the Blues, with Serie A giants Napoli reportedly receiving €40 million to sanction the deal.
Kalidou Koulibaly has spent most of his professional career with Napoli. The 31-year-old joined the Partenopei from KRC Genk in July 2014 and went from strength to strength in the last eight years, establishing himself as one of the best defenders in Serie A.
The Senegalese international made over 300 appearances for Napoli while chipping in with 14 goals and seven assists. But Koulibaly was determined to leave the Italian club and embark on a new adventure in the summer transfer window after entering the final year of his contract. And he has now completed the move to Chelsea.
Chelsea held a long-standing interest in Koulibaly but only launched the offensive for him this year. The Blues have been desperate to sign at least two new centre-back in the summer transfer window after seeing Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen depart from Stamford Bridge as free agents.
The biggest show in town! ?#KoulibalyIsChelsea pic.twitter.com/EnwDT3ofeU
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) July 16, 2022
The duo’s exits had left Thomas Tuchel with Thiago Silva, Trevoh Chalobah and Malang Sarr as the only natural central defenders at his disposal. So Chelsea needed to invest in new centre-backs this summer and subsequently chased Matthijs de Ligt and Jules Kounde before turning their attention to Koulibaly.
The Blues took no time to reach a full agreement to sign Koulibaly, even though Barcelona reportedly asked him to wait for them to make their move. But the 31-year-old did not pay heed to Barcelona’s request and has now completed his move to Chelsea. Upon completing his transfer, the Senegalese international expressed his delight while revealing Chelsea’s long-standing interest.
“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. 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 and Jorginho they made my choice easier so I’m really happy to be with you today. I want to thank the fans because I saw a lot of them in London and on the plane everybody was happy for me to be here. So I want to thank them and I hope the season will be really good and we will give some good moments to the fans.”
Koulibaly has signed a four-year contract with Chelsea, with Napoli receiving €40 million to sanction the deal. It will be interesting to see if the 31-year-old can have a similar effect as Silva by using his wealth of experience to be a wily figure for Chelsea.
