At 31, Koulibaly signs 4-year deal with Chelsea

Chelsea have given Koulibaly a four-year contract that will keep him at Stamford Bridge until June 2026, just after his 35th birthday.

According to the statement released by Chelsea “Koulibaly, an international team-mate of Edouard Mendy’s will significantly bolster our defensive options following the departures of Toni Rudiger and Andreas Christensen.

Widely regarded as one of the best centre-backs in world football, the Senegalese possesses all the attributes an elite modern defender requires. He is a great reader of the game, a goal threat, and also adept in possession, comfortable bringing the ball out or playing progressive passes to put his team on the attack. He has been deployed in a back three and a back four during his eight years at Napoli.

The captain of Senegal, Koulibaly is a natural leader and a strong character. He has plenty of experience challenging for domestic and international titles and joins the Blues ahead of the 2022/23 campaign aiming to do just that.

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‘I’m very happy to be here with this team at Chelsea,’ said Koulibaly. ‘It’s a big team in the world and my dream was always to play in the Premier League. Chelsea came first to get me in 2016 but we didn’t make it. Now when they came to me I accepted it because they really wanted me to come to the Premier League to play for them. When I spoke to my good friends Edou and Jorginho they made my choice easier so I’m really happy to be with you today.

‘I want to thank the fans because I saw a lot of them in London and on the plane everybody was happy for me to be here. So I want to thank them and I hope the season will be really good and we will give some good moments to the fans.’

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Todd Boehly, chairman and co-controlling owner, said, “Kalidou Koulibaly is one of the world’s elite defenders and we are delighted to be welcoming him to Chelsea. A great leader and an exemplary team player, Kalidou brings a wealth of experience and attributes that will benefit our squad and the club as a whole.’

Welcome to Chelsea, Kalidou! “

The central defender, who has 62 caps for Senegal, has signed a four-year contract worth around £160,000 per week (£8.2m a year) net plus bonuses to move to Stamford Bridge. He flew out to Las Vegas on Friday to join up with his new team-mates on their pre-season tour of USA.

Koulibaly, who was also interesting Juventus, had just one year left on his Napoli contract, and his signing follows the £47.5m capture of Raheem Sterling from Manchester City.

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The Blues lost Antonio Rudiger to Real Madrid and Andreas Christensen to Barcelona this summer – both on free transfers – leaving Thiago Silva, Trevoh Chalobah and Malang Sarr as the only senior centre-backs in Thomas Tuchel’s squad.

Koulibaly, 31, made over 300 appearances for the Serie A club since joining from Belgian side Genk eight years ago, being named in the Serie A team of the year on four occasions, as well as being named the best defender in Italy in 2019.

Chelsea are still interested in Manchester City’s Nathan Ake, Sevilla’s Jules Kounde, RB Leipzig’s Josko Gvardiol and Paris Saint-Germain’s Presnel Kimpembe.

The Blues are also keen on Juventus’ Matthijs de Ligt, but he reportedly favours a move to Bayern Munich.