The English Premier League club Chelsea is very close to signing the Italian Serie A club Napoli’s Senegalese centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly. Here, we are discussing how the defender can help the London club in the upcoming season.

The 31-year-old Kalidou Koulibaly is one of the top centre-backs in the present football world. Apart from serving as a centre-back, Koulibaly is also useful as a full-back (effective on both left and right) or as a defensive midfielder.

After serving for the French club Metz (2010-12) and Belgian club Genk (2012-14), Koulibaly joined Napoli in 2014 summer. He spent eight consecutive seasons for the Italian club before his latest move to the PL.

While Napoli won the 2014 Supercoppa Italiana and 2019/20 Coppa Italia during Koulibaly’s tenure, he won the Serie A Best Defender award in the 2018/19 season.

According to recent media reports, Chelsea are set to sign the present Senegal national football team captain Koulibaly.

Kalidou Koulibaly’s strength(s)

• Koulibaly is a fit, fast, brave and fearless defender who likes to tackle the attackers strongly and cleanly.  
• Not only Koulibaly is brave and fearless, but he is also very clever as he is always aware of the situations in the defensive box. There are a lot of past incidents where he cleared the sure goals as the last man from very near the goal line.
• Koulibaly can also deliver useful passes as his pass success ratio was around 87% in the last Serie A season (2021/22).   
• Koulibaly is also a very strong dribbler who likes to build up the attacks for his teams. His dribble success ratio in the last Serie A season was incredibly just over 90 per cent.

Kalidou Koulibaly’s weakness(es)

• While Koulibaly is very active in fearless tackling and blocking, he is mostly in danger in the card issues. His on-field disciplinary issues can be a headache for his team sometimes.  
• The 6’3” Koulibaly’s aerial success ratio in the last Serie A season was around 55 per cent.

Chelsea are excited

Chelsea have recently released two crucial centre-backs German Antonio Rudiger (free agent) and Danish Andreas Christensen (free agent). Now, they have Malang Sarr, Ethan Ampadu, Cesar Azpilicueta, Trevoh Chalobah and Thiago Silva for the centre-back options before Koulibaly’s joining. The Senegal captain Koulibaly is undoubtedly a very strong option for Chelsea’s centre-back positions.

Moreover, Koulibaly’s versatility as a defender can be a big asset for the London club.