Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis is ‘furious’ with Kalidou Koulibaly and his agent Fali Ramadani after the centre-back rejected a contract extension with the club.
Koulibaly’s contract at the Stadio Maradona runs out in June 2023 but the defender seems to have accepted a move to Chelsea instead of re-signing with the Serie A outfit.
Chelsea have been looking to strengthen at centre-back for quite some time. After losing Antonio Rudiger to Real Madrid and Andreas Christensen to Barcelona - both on free transfers - Thomas Tuchel needs to add at least two defenders this window.
READ MORE: Chelsea close to Kalidou Koulibaly signing amid Matthijs de Ligt and Jules Kounde decision
football.london understands that a deal for Koulibaly is now close. Plus, Italian transfer guru Alfredo Pedulla of Sport Italia has since said that the 31-year-old has accepted a five-year contract proposal worth around £7.6million-£8.4million per year (roughly £180,000-a-week).
Whilst that's great news for Chelsea fans, De Laurentiis isn't taking the news well. Valter De Maggio, the editor-in-chief of Napoli’s official Radio Station Radio Kiss Kiss, as cited by Football Italia, claims that the Napoli chief is angry with the Senegal defender.
“De Laurentiis is literally furious with Koulibaly and his agent Fali Ramadani,” said De Maggio as quoted by Napoli Today. “De Laurentiis held talks with Chelsea, while director Cristiano Giuntoli negotiated with Brighton over Ostigard.”
Napoli's loss is Chelsea's gain as Tuchel is adding one of the best defenders in the world to his starting team. Although he still needs to add a few more players before he's able to compete with the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool for the Premier League title, Chelsea are heading in the right direction.
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