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Last week, we heard that Napoli had agreed a deal with Belgian side KRC Genk to bring in young center back Kalidou Koulibaly for a princely sum of €8 million. That still seems like a lot for Koulibaly, but that's a separate issue and I digress.
Earlier this week, rumors emerged that he was due to arrive in Naples to take a medical in advance of tying up the final details of a contract. The reports indicated that the medical would happen on Monday or Tuesday in order for it to be complete for the Cagliari match.
Some of the details seem a little odd, though. Genk just played a Jupiler League playoff match on Saturday, and are preparing for another on Sunday. Genk are basically dead in the water as far as trying to qualify for European places, but have the opportunity to play spoiler in the champion's conversation, as their last three matches are all against the current top three. That means that letting probably their best defender fly off to Naples when he should be training with the squad is a bizarre choice at best.
Also, Koulibaly was not spotted in the stands on Tuesday, as most incoming players would be in such a situation. That leads a little extra credence to Ricardo Bigon's denial of a Koulibaly deal being so far along. On Tuesday, he told +N tv "I deny the news [about a Koulibaly] medical for Napoli, but he is still a player we are following."
So in other words, this deal isn't as close as the rumor mongers would have you think, but it does seem as though there's at least some truth to what we've been told so far. This is a name we're going to be hearing a lot more of in the coming weeks.
