Back in May, French news source Le10Sport covered an exclusive story claiming that Liverpool are in pole position to sign Kalidou Koulibaly in the summer transfer window.
Since then, the Senegalese international has been consistently linked with a move to Anfield and recently, a former Man United star has backed Liverpool to lure the central defender.
News – Very likely £27million “unbelievable” player will secure Liverpool move – Report
Retired Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov thinks that the Merseysiders perhaps need a center back and Koulibaly would be an excellent signing. The 39-year-old said (via The Express):
“I’m not sure they need to change too much, maybe a centre-back better than Joe Gomez to play with Van Dijk,”
“Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli would be an excellent signing. But apart from that the Reds have an excellent team.”
Gomez was rock solid for us alongside Van Dijk in the central defense in the 2019-20 campaign but it must be remembered that his injury record (Transfermarkt) is not good.
Matip has done well for us but in the last year, the Cameroonian spent the majority of his time on the treatment table. So, now that Lovren is gone, we should look to lure a center half.
Koulibaly is arguably the best defender in the Serie A. The 33-capped international has been highly consistent in the Italian league (4x Serie A Team of the Year) and is the captain of his country (2x Senegal Player of the Year).
The African star was brilliant against us in both the Champions League group stage fixtures last year. Like Van Dijk, Koulibaly is an extremely hard man to beat.
So, it will be fair to say that the former Genk star would further amplify the strength of our back-line. The dilemma is that he will turn 30 next year and is going to cost a lot.
Napoli president Aurelio de Laurentiis has admitted that he could lose the star defender this summer, however, for that to happen, his valuation of 90 million euros (£81million) should be met (Sky Italia via Goal).
