Manchester United wanted to sign Napoli star Kalidou Koulibaly back in 2018 for manager Jose Mourinho, but Carlo Ancelotti ensured that the £88million deal didn’t go ahead
Carlo Ancelotti was Napoli boss back in 2018(Image: MAURO PIMENTEL/AFP via Getty Images)
Carlo Ancelotti managed to persuade Kalidou Koulibaly to stay at Napoli following a huge transfer offer from Manchester United. Koulibaly has opened up on how the legendary Italian manager torpedoed a potential blockbuster deal for him at Old Trafford back in 2018.
Seven years ago, Jose Mourinho was desperate to sign a top-quality centre-back for United and ear-marked Koulibaly as targets, alongside Harry Maguire and Toby Alderweireld. Koulibaly was at the top of his game for Napoli and United therefore submitted an offer, which the Senegal international remembers being worth €100million (£88m today).
He was ready to jump ship and join the Premier League side, who then had Chris Smalling and Victor Lindelof as their first-choice pairing in central defence. But Napoli were unwilling to let him go – and it was Ancelotti’s intervention which made all the difference.
“Napoli had received an offer worth €100m from Manchester United, but they rejected it,” Koulibaly recalled on the Zack en Roue Libre Podcast, as relayed by Tutto Mercato.
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“Ancelotti came to me and said: ‘I came here to win the Scudetto. What do you want to do?’ I replied: ‘I wanted to leave, why?’” He said he knew about the offer, but if I had left, he would have resigned the following day.”
Koulibaly had joined Napoli from Genk in 2014 for around £6.5m and he felt the time was right to move on. But the experience and persuasive power of his manager ultimately saw him change his mind.
“I thought my time at Napoli was over,” he added. “I had given my all. I had spent four seasons there, and I could have had the best contract of my career.
Kalidou Koulibaly spent eight years with Napoli(Image: SIPA USA/PA Images)
“In the evening, Ancelotti called me and said: ‘Come to my room.’ He opened the door and said: ‘Ah, mon ami Kalidou!’ He spoke French, we were both wearing pyjamas. I was shocked. I explained to him that I wasn’t happy and that I thought the president had lacked respect towards me for the way he spoke.”
The deal was scuppered and Koulibaly ended up staying with Napoli for a further four years before joining Chelsea in 2022. The centre-back lasted just one season with the Blues before leaving for Al-Hilal in 2023, where he remains to this day.
United didn’t get their man with Koulibaly but did splash the cash the following summer, spending £80m to get Maguire from Leicester City. The England international remains at the club now and arrived in the 2019/20 season alongside Bruno Fernandes, who went on to take the captaincy off him.
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