As AS has learned, FC Barcelona has contacted Kalidou Koulibaly’s agent, Fali Ramadini, to ask him for a little more patience and not to move yet with the Italian club about the renewal offer he has on the table. And it is that the Blaugrana club maintains its interest in the Napoli center-back intact, whose contract ends in 2023, and that It has Xavi Hernández as its maximum supporter.
Barcelona has been monitoring the steps of the Senegalese international for some time, who is considered the ideal central defender to reinforce Xavi’s project, both for his forcefulness and for his ability to take out the controlled ball. In addition, other virtues of the defender are highly valued, such as his speed, ability to anticipate and power in the air. For many club technicians, he would be the perfect replacement for Gerard Piqué, who in the best of cases has one more season left.
Many in Barcelona are rubbing their hands thinking about the defensive tandem formed by Araújo and Koulibaly in the central axis for the next five years, also having Eric Garcia and Andreas Christensen as alternatives, thus fulfilling the coach’s mandate with two quality players in each position. The sacrificed would be the French Samuel Umtiti and Clement Lenglet.
The problem in Koulibaly’s exit operation is that Napoli are not going to give him away, far from it, even if he only has one year left on his contract. The first contacts between both clubs have not been very positive: the Italian club remains intransigent in the 40 million euroswithout accepting any player as barter or to make the operation cheaper.
Con the player, yes, everything is quite advanced, with the promise of a contract until 2026, ending when he turns 34.
In any case, given the volatility of the market, Barcelona is playing other keys, although without excessive conviction, like the one we already pointed out in the newspaper a week ago, when sounding out the options of Milan’s central defender, Alessio Romagnoli, who would arrive for free at the end of his contract this summer. It was also tried with the central of ChelseaAntonio Rüdiger, but his high financial claims, close to 12 million euros clean per season, ruled out the operation.
Despite this list of names, Xavi’s priority in the central axis continues to be Koulibaly. In any case, his arrival would not stop the agreement with Andreas Christensen, with whom his signing has already been closed, but rather it would be a reinforcement that the club considers necessary to settle the sports project.