A growing story over the past few days, Kalidou Koulibaly to Manchester City has dipped straight back down after it was reported that Napoli had turned down the first offer brought by Fali Ramadani, the player’s agent.
Said to be around €60-65m, the bid from Pep Guardiola’s side was deemed insufficient by Aurelio de Laurentiis, who would want considerably more for his star.
That’s why there’s a certain calm reigning over the Italian club for now, as they aren’t in a rush to sell the Senegal international, and he isn’t in a hurry to leave either.
Corriere dello Sport look at the situation on Friday, claiming the centre-back would ‘also be happy’ to continue with the Serie A club, despite many previous claims he wanted to go try something new.
What changed his mind? It’s not really said, but it could be the decent run of form the club have picked up under Gennaro Gattuso, perhaps giving Koulibaly hope the club could return to play for trophies next season.
Having renewed his deal in 2018, Koulibaly is in a stable situation at Napoli under 2023, meaning there’s no rush to go anywhere, and De Laurentiis has ‘no intention of devaluing him’ just to make a sale.
The player ‘hasn’t closed the possibility of continuing in a club he loves’, meaning he could easily see out his playing career in the south of Italy.
However, Corriere do explain that ‘Manchester City will not give up easily’ on the 29-year-old defender, but ‘they have been warned’, and it seems they are currently facing an uphill battle to sign Koulibaly this summer.
