Kalidou Koulibaly Says He's Happy to Spend Rest of His Career at Napoli
Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly has admitted that he would be more than willing to spend the remainder of his career at Stadio San Paolo, should the club offer him a new contract.
The center back was subject to interest from clubs across Europe last season after an impressive run of form, and the 26-year-old has continued in the same vein this season as his steely defensive performances have helped catapult Napoli to the top of the Serie A table, with just one defeat to their name in their 20 games to date.
Napoli are on track to secure their first Italian top-flight title since 1990 and Koulibaly revealed he harbored no reservations about committing his long-term future to the club if given the opportunity to do so.
The defender told Gazzetta dello Sport, via Football Italia: “For my family and the fans, and if the contract was good, I’d have no problem signing, staying forever.
“I’m really happy here, the city and the team have given me everything. I want to give back to the Neapolitans, I want to give them the Scudetto."
Koulibaly made the move to Napoli from Genk in the summer of 2014 after being bought by former manager Rafa Benitez, however it was the arrival of current boss Maurizio Sarri which the 26-year-old points to as the defining moment of his time with the Italian outfit.
He added: “I had some problems, with [Rafa] Benitez I ended up on the bench and that was a very important period because I worked on myself a lot and saw things from the outside, also on a tactical level.
“I forced myself to prove they weren’t wrong to sign me, that I could become one of the best defenders in the Italian league.
“As soon as Sarri arrived he told me: ‘listen to me and you’ll become a champion’. That was important because it gave me confidence in a period where things weren’t going well."
Napoli are set to return from their winter break on Sunday to face Bologna, where they will look to pick up from where they left off and hope that come May they will have ended Juventus's six-year stranglehold on the league.
