Barcelona Wants Gerard Pique’s Replacement Valued At £40 Million

Barcelona News Transfer: As reported by CaughtOffSide, Barcelona is leading the race to sign Napoli star center-back Kalidou Koulibaly this summer. The 30-year-old defender is open to a move but his parent club Napoli is still making things difficult for other teams.

There was a time when Koulibaly was in fine form and linked to several clubs. But Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis was not ready to sell his star asset for anything less than £100m. Teams like Manchester United and Chelsea were interested in signing him, but his asking price pushed everyone away.

And now, as Koulibaly is slowly moving behind his prime years, his price tag is also taking a hit. The Senegal center-back has just one year left on his current contract which will expire in 2023.

Aurelio De Laurentiis is well aware of the fact that he needs to convince Koulibaly to sign a contract or he will face the risk of losing him for free. This time, Napoli can’t ask for a higher price from the suitors and will sell him for £40m.

Barcelona’s financial condition is not the best at this moment and they will think twice before signing players. But obviously, no one could predict their behavior in the transfer market.

Barcelona News Transfer: Would Barcelona president Laporta Splash £40m for Kalidou Koulibaly?

Many believe that Barcelona will try to sell their players first before signing newer ones. This also means that they will not sign unwanted costly players.

However, the same situation occurred last year, but Barcelona still surprised everyone by signing Ferras Torres for £55m. They could repeat the same thing again by signing Koulibaly.

Laporta will try to negotiate for a fee less than £40m and the move could be possible. Also, the club has to receive the green light from the levers before making any deal.

This season, Kalidou Koulibaly played 27 matches in the Serie A and still scored three goals and provided three assists.

Xavi is a fan of Koulibaly as he wants a strong commanding center-back to boost his squad. Barcelona has already signed Christensen from Chelsea and could make it more even more dominant by signing the Napoli center-back this summer.