‘I had to wait’: Chelsea’s Koulibaly on realising his Premier League dream | Chelsea
Throughout his profession Kalidou Koulibaly has needed to study to be affected person. Rejected by Metz at 15 for being “too introverted”, within the phrases of the membership’s academy head Denis Schaeffer, the towering defender who grew up in northeastern France to Senegalese dad and mom spent two years taking part in novice soccer for Saint-Dié earlier than lastly being invited again to Metz. Greater than a decade on and having arrived at Chelsea last month for £33.8m after eight years with Napoli the place he established himself as one of many world’s greatest defenders, Koulibaly definitely couldn’t be accused of being an introvert nowadays. Fluent in 4 languages after choosing up English throughout his spell at Genk in Belgium, the 31-year-old insists he “by no means stopped believing” he might fulfil his childhood dream of taking part in within the Premier League and makes no secret of the very fact his transfer to Stamford Bridge has been a number of years within the making after Antonio Conte first tried to signal him in 2015. “I spoke with Conte in Rome – he wished me after my first good 12 months in Napoli,” Koulibaly remembers.…