Manchester United pursuing centre-back with decreasing price tag

Kalidou Koulibaly TEAMtalk

Manchester United remain in the hunt for Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly this summer and his price tag has reportedly dropped considerably. 

Italian outlet Il Mattino state United are still contenders for the 29-year-old centre-back.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is understood to be prioritising two positions this summer – centre-back and centre-forward.

Solskjaer is believed to be looking for a long-term partner for Harry Maguire. Jules Koundes, Raphael Varane and Nikola Milenkovic have all been linked.

Koulibaly has long since been linked with United. But Bild suggest Bayern Munich are also in the race for the Senegal star.

What’s more appealing for the pair is that Mundo Deportivo, as translated by Sport Witness, suggest the fee for Koulibaly could be around €45m.

That is a significant drop on last summer’s prices when around €75m was the asking price from Napoli president Aurelio de Laurentiis.

De Laurentiis made clear during the summer transfer window that Koulibaly could leave, but only if his terms were met.

Koulibaly though stayed put. Now though with his contract set to expire in 2023, Napoli will accept a considerably lower offer for the player.

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Man City’s Koulibaly gaffe

Manchester City were linked with the defender last summer. And in the story to announce Ruben Dias’ signing on City’s website they also appeared to let slip that Koulibaly could soon be following.

The story – confirming that Dias would wear the No 3 shirt for the season – included a link at the bottom, urging City fans to ask ‘new signing’ Koulibaly a question.

That was quickly deleted once the blunder had been spotted, but not before a screengrab had been shared.

It’s also been suggested that perhaps Dias was, in fact, City’s second choice behind Koulibaly.

 

Kalidou Koulibaly