Chelsea are closing in on the €40million (£33.7m) signing of Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli, football.london understands. The Blues are expected to make the 31-year-old their first defensive signing of the summer transfer window.
As football.london reported on Tuesday afternoon, Thomas Tuchel recently approved making a move for Koulibaly, who has been on the club's radar for a number of years now. The Senegal international has less than 12 months remaining on his contract at Napoli, who are seemingly open to selling their star defender.
Koulibaly has been at Napoli since the summer of 2014 after he signed from Belgian club Genk for around £6.5m. Since then, his performances in the south of Italy have made him one of European football's most sought-after defensive players.
READ MORE: Kalidou Koulibaly and Nathan Ake poised to seal Chelsea transfers with two players set to leave
The Senegalese centre-back is very aggressive in duels, both on the ground and in an aerial sense. He is also really composed and calm when in possession of the ball – something that will suit Tuchel's system of playing it out from the back.
However, this wasn't always the case. Koulibaly has had to adapt over his career in order to keep progressing. His biggest adaptation, perhaps, was when he moved to Napoli in 2014 from Genk.
Rafael Benitez, who was manager of the Italian club from 2013 until 2015, played a huge part in bringing the defender to Naples. Benitez – who is well-known for his attention to detail in the tactical side of football – was keen to eradicate any potential flaws in Koulibaly's game/
"After my medical, Rafa took me out to lunch, and the first thing he did after we sat down, before we even got the menus, he took all the wine glasses from the other tables," Koulibaly said in an extensive interview with The Players' Tribune in July 2019. "He was laying them out on the table and sliding them around. I am thinking: 'What is he doing? Is he mad?'
"He said, 'Okay, now I show you the tactics. The waiter comes over, and the Mister is pushing the glasses everywhere, saying: 'This is how we play. You go here, then you go there. Do you understand? Now, you must do two things very quickly: You must understand these tactics, and you must learn Italian'.
"I said: 'Okay, boss, okay'. When I returned from a little vacation, Rafa shut me in a room with the head of video analysis, and he was showing me all of my best plays. Sensational passes, dribbling, sliding tackles.
"He says, 'This, this and this?'. I say, 'Yes, it's good, no?'. He says: 'Don't do this s*** anymore'. I say, 'But I won the ball back!'
"It's hard to translate the next part, but he says, 'This is a**! You won it back because of your strength. If your opponent was smarter, you would be in trouble.
"Then he shows me this other video. Very boring. Normal plays. He's smiling, and he says, 'Yes! This is good. This is very good'. I say, 'But, sir, these are simple plays', he says, 'Yes, Kouli, exactly'.
"This says everything about my experience here. When I arrived in Italy, I was a boy. I became a better footballer because I learned top-level tactics. They are so meticulous with the tactics here. But the most important thing is that I also became a family man and a real Neapolitan."
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