On Monday, we covered an article from Il Mattino claiming that Chelsea were preparing a €75m offer for Kalidou Koulibaly, which Napoli would find hard to refuse.
That now makes perfect sense, since Sport Mediaset (and Gazzetta dello Sport) have reminded everyone the Senegalese defender has a €70m release clause in his current contract worth €2m/year.
Because €75m is more than €70m (mind-boggling, we know), the Serie A side would therefore have to accept.
That amount isn’t new, since it was reported when he signed his current contract back in 2016, and a dig through our archives brought up this particular article from the very same Il Mattino reporting just last month that Koulibaly does indeed have a €70m release clause in his deal.
So, why would they report a potential €75m bid when Chelsea could get him for €70m?
Well, according to Calciomercato on Monday, Napoli have the possibility of increasing the clause’s amount, knowing Premier League sides, like Chelsea, would then have to pay more for his services.
Either that, or the Italian press are just throwing around random big numbers for fun, which they’ve been known to do in the past when they get a bit too excited about someone.
However, as things stand, €70m is what clubs from abroad (not Italy, because of Juventus) would need to pay to get to hold official contract talks with the 26-year-old.
We’ll have to wait and see if this interest from Chelsea comes from Antonio Conte, but our gut tells us that since the interest is still there and the Italian appears to be on his way out, Koulibaly is most likely a club target, not the manager’s.
If it all dies down after he is (most likely) pushed aside, we’ll have our answer.
