{"id":453794,"date":"2019-06-09T07:02:24","date_gmt":"2019-06-09T11:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonfootball.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=453794"},"modified":"2019-06-09T08:14:56","modified_gmt":"2019-06-09T12:14:56","slug":"kalidou-koulibaly-manchester-united-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2019\/06\/09\/kalidou-koulibaly-manchester-united-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"REPORT: Manchester United Fend Off Kalidou Koulibaly Competition With \u00a384 Million Bid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonfootball.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/clubs\/manchester-united\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Manchester United<\/a> hope to fend off European competition for defender <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/da974c7b\/Kalidou-Koulibaly?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kalidou Koulibaly<\/a>\u00a0with an alleged \u00a384 million offer. Reports by Corriere dello Sport (via\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/sport\/football\/9250619\/man-utd-napoli-koulibaly-transfer-bid\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Sun<\/a>) claim that the Napoli defender is United&#8217;s top target this summer.<\/p>\n<h1>Manchester United Submit \u00a384 Million Bid For Kalidou Koulibaly<\/h1>\n<h2>Key Summer Target<\/h2>\n<p>27-year-old defender Kalidou Koulibaly\u00a0is Manchester United&#8217;s number one target this summer. The Senegal international has become a top target with United set to miss out on Ajax defender <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/d6e53a3a\/Matthijs-de-Ligt?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matthijs de Ligt<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The defender has been linked to an Old Trafford move for months as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer hopes to transform his side. However, reports from Italian outlet Corriere dello Sport claim United have ramped up their interest.<\/p>\n<p>With the Red Devils holding high levels of interest, Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis is determined to hold out for a high fee.<\/p>\n<p>The 70-year-old has previously claimed that his key players are not for sale.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are not a supermarket &#8211; our players are not for sale unless we buy someone whom we think will make the team stronger,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.corrieredellosport.it\/news\/calcio\/serie-a\/napoli\/2019\/06\/08-57752981\/de_laurentiis_carica_il_napoli_inter_rassegnati_mi_tengo_i_campioni\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">he said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo many teams ask for our players, but they are not for sale.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, the Napoli president has set an asking price of at least \u00a389million to let the 27-year-old leave.\u00a0Koulibaly has a \u00a3133million release clause inserted into his contract; however, that does not become active until next year.<\/p>\n<h2>European Competition For Defender&#8217;s Signature<\/h2>\n<p>However, Manchester United face a fight for Koulibaly. <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonfootball.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/clubs\/paris-saint-germain\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paris Saint-Germain<\/a> are hopeful of bringing the former Metz defender back to France; meanwhile, Napoli&#8217;s Serie A rivals <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonfootball.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/clubs\/juventus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Juventus<\/a> want to add him to their title-winning squad.<\/p>\n<p>Despite European competition, the latest reports suggest that United lead the race for\u00a0Koulibaly.<\/p>\n<p>The 27-year-old joined Napoli from Genk five years ago and his top performances have made him highly sought after.<\/p>\n<p>Koulibaly played an instrumental role in helping Napoli finish runners-up in the Serie A. The defender has been involved in 19 clean sheets for the Italian side in all competitions.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp; <a id=\"Us90PHCvT_5UIrJ3wBve8Q\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1145164987\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'Us90PHCvT_5UIrJ3wBve8Q',sig:'1ifzMEjSwOGN2wbORH9_lTp5fGutJTVBaT58In4zAKs=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1145164987',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Manchester United hope to fend off European competition for defender Kalidou Koulibaly\u00a0with an alleged \u00a384 million offer. Reports by Corriere dello Sport (via\u00a0The Sun) claim that the Napoli defender is United&#8217;s top target this summer. Manchester United Submit \u00a384 Million Bid For Kalidou Koulibaly Key Summer Target 27-year-old defender Kalidou Koulibaly\u00a0is Manchester United&#8217;s number one [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3040,"featured_media":454400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1367,2,1362,18,30,3,5,28],"tags":[323,1805,36,895,84,136],"class_list":["post-453794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-paris-saint-germain","category-featured","category-juventus","category-manchester-united","category-news","category-premier-league","category-serie-a","category-transfers","tag-juventus","tag-kalidou-koulibaly","tag-manchester-united","tag-napoli","tag-paris-saint-germain","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Nat Goodlad, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3040"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}