‘I had to wait’: Chelsea’s Koulibaly on realising his Premier League dream

Throughout his career Kalidou Koulibaly has had to learn to be patient. Rejected by Metz at 15 for being “too introverted”, in the words of the club’s academy head Denis Schaeffer, the towering defender who grew up in northeastern France to Senegalese parents spent two years playing amateur football for Saint-Dié before finally being invited back to Metz.

More than a decade on and having arrived at Chelsea last month for £33.8m after eight years with Napoli where he established himself as one of the world’s best defenders, Koulibaly certainly couldn’t be accused of being an introvert these days.

Fluent in four languages after picking up English during his spell at Genk in Belgium, the 31-year-old insists he “never stopped believing” he could fulfil his childhood dream of playing in the Premier League and makes no secret of the fact his move to Stamford Bridge has been several years in the making after Antonio Conte first tried to sign him in 2015.

“I spoke with Conte in Rome – he wanted me after my first good year in Napoli,” Koulibaly recalls. “I asked respectfully to the owner that I wanted to leave for Chelsea but he told me that it wouldn’t be possible. So I waited a bit and continued my conversation with them but they really didn’t want me to leave the club so I decided to renew my contract to stay in Napoli. For me it was a bit hard to say no because it was my dream to play in the Premier League since I was a child. But I knew that one day it would happen and I’m happy that it has. I had to wait and I had a lot of patience.”

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