Chelsea’s interest in the Napoli defender, Kalidou Koulibaly, was reported by most media outlets across England and Italy during the summer.
The Blues wanted to sign the Senegal international after failing to land the Juventus star Leonardo Bonucci.
However, Napoli sold Higuain in the summer and therefore the Italians were reluctant to sell another one of their key players.
Koulibaly has been one of the best defenders in Italy over the last 12 months and could have been a fantastic addition to Conte’s side.
A few months have passed since then and the Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis has now confirmed to Sky Sports that Chelsea submitted a huge 58 million pound bid for the defender during the summer transfer window.
Laurentiis also confirmed that it was Chelsea’s sixth bid for the Napoli star. The Blues had five more bids rejected for the player.
“They offered to me £30, 35, 40, 45, 50 [million]. Mr Conte, I said, ‘Marina [Granovskaia, Chelsea director] is behind me, follow me’, I offered him that. Last moment, two days before the closing of the market, I hear £58 [million] – something like that.”
It is understandable why Chelsea wanted to sign him, but for that amount, it would have been a ridiculous deal.
Koulibaly, despite his quality, is not a player who is worth that much. Looking back at it, Conte was probably desperate to land a defender and therefore sanctioned a deal well over the odds.
The player did his best to force a move away from Napoli back then but ended up signing a new contract that ties him to the Serie A club until 2021.
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