Chelsea had €50m bid rejected for Serie A defender

Napoli rejected a €50 million offer for Senegal international defender Kalidou Koulibaly this summer from Chelsea, according to reports.

Sky Sports is reporting that Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis has claimed that he rejected a massive €50 million bid for defender Kalidou Koulibaly.

Chelsea were desperate to sign a central defender during the transfer window which closed last night. And after failing in moved for their preferred targets, the Blues ended up paying £32 million to bring 29-year-old Brazilian centre-back David Luiz back to Stamford Bridge from Paris Saint Germain.

But, given the chance, it is believed that Chelsea manager Antonio Conte would have brought in Koulibaly instead. After missing out on the Napoli defender Chelsea then turned their attention to AC Milan’s 21-year-old Alessio Romagnoli, but the Rossoneri rejected the Premier League side’s €35 million bid for the man they signed from Roma for €25 million last summer.

It is believed that, before moving for Luiz, Chelsea also looking into the possibility of signing Stefan de Vrij from Lazio and Aymen Abdennour from Valencia.

The transfer fee that Chelsea have forked out to re-sign Luiz, now means that the former Benfica player have had more than £100 million spent on him in total career transfer fees, more than any other defender.

Luiz will be joined at Chelsea by left-back Marcos Alonso, who was also signed on deadline day for £23 million from Fiorentina.