Finally, the decision has been made: Stefan De Vrij will not be renewing his contract with Lazio.
This isn’t what a newspaper are reporting, but it’s the club’s director of football, Igli Tare, who made the announcement on Monday night ahead of the game against Hellas Verona, revealing the club will ‘withdraw the proposal that we have made’ to De Vrij and that ‘at the end of the season, our roads will be divided’.
Now that the news is official, it’s time for the newspapers to speculate, and Gazzetta dello Sport report that Chelsea are one of the clubs very interested in getting a deal done for the Dutch centre-back.
Antonio Conte’s side have been linked many times with the Lazio star, but, as things stand, Inter are said to be firmly in the lead, having already agreed a five year contract with his agency, SEG, worth around €4.2m/year.
As well as Chelsea, Barcelona, Atlético Madrid and Zenit in Russia are all following the situation closely.
Lazio had put a new one-year deal in front of the player, with an option to extend it a further year had the club qualified for the Champions League, which included a €25m release clause.
That clearly wasn’t enough, and now, it’s up to the highest bidder.
For Chelsea the prospect of signing the much wanted Dutchman for free could be very attractive indeed, as the club continue the revamp of their defence. Getting De Vrij for free would allow Antonio Conte, or more likely his successor, to have more funds for other areas.
