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Football London
Football London
Sport
Joe Doyle

Kalidou Koulibaly's true value as Man United close in on Tottenham transfer target

Manchester United are rumoured to be close to agreeing a deal to sign Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly.

Spurs are among a number of clubswho have been linked to the Senegal international, who has been turning heads across Europe with a number of standout performances in the last few years.

The Serie A side are well aware of how much money they could possibly seek for the 28-year-old, and no clubs have made concrete moves for the centre-back.

Napoli apparently want as much as €120million (£102.8million) for the defender, who has apparently asked to leave the club.

Mourinho praises Eriksen's professionalism amid transfer rumours

Barcelona are also said to have showed interest in the defender, though that was before Ernesto Valverde was replaced by Quique Setien as head coach this week.

But Manchester United are now most strongly linked Koulibaly, with Italian journalist Fabio Santini (via Sport Witness ) stating that a deal has been agreed - but it will not take place until the summer.

"Napoli will sell Kalidou Koulibaly to Manchester United for a figure of around €70m - €75m (£60m - £64.2m)," he stated.

"It seems all done. Naturally, such a deal will be closed only in June and certainly not in January in the winter transfer window."

However, according to the CIES Football Observatory , that would be overrating Koulibaly's potential value.

The centre-back is apparently worth between just €30m and €40m (£25.7m and £34.3m).

His value is said to have dropped over the last year, and if United were to seal a move for him in the summer, he would be 29 years old by the time he finally played for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side.

His current contract runs for another three-and-a-half years, which means getting him for that price will be extremely unlikely.

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