Chelsea
Chelsea are one of the clubs chasing Werder Bremen’s Karim Coulibaly ahead of the summer.
Last Tuesday, Sport Witness covered claims from Germany of Chelsea’s interest and the Bundesliga side setting a €40-50m price.
The centre-back initially joined the Bundesliga side’s youth team in 2024 and made his way into their first team earlier this season.
His Bundesliga stats this season are as follows:
Appearances: 23
Starts: 20
Total minutes: 1,807
Minutes per game: 79
Interceptions per game: 0.9
Tackles per game: 1.0
Ball recovered per game: 2.4
Clearances per game: 4.2
Duels won per game: 3.0
Chelsea interest backed up
Bild now state Chelsea’s ‘interest remains high’, along with Newcastle United, Paris Saint-Germain and Marseille.
Werder Bremen managing director Clemens Fritz told Bild that his side are aware of the growing interest in Karim Coulibaly. However, he didn’t name the 18-year-old’s suitors.
“He has really attracted attention in recent weeks and months. There aren’t many players in Europe who get the playing time in a top five league at his age that Karim does,” he said.
Chelsea and others are ‘still waiting’ before taking the next step because his price could drop.
The German U21 international suffered a hamstring injury in February and was out for 27 days.
It forced him to miss three matches and also missed the league defeat to RB Leipzig on April 4th due to a muscular problem. The recent injuries meant he couldn’t increase his price, which Bild now claim is €45m.
The German club are 15th in the table [18 teams in Bundesliga], seven points above 17th placed VfL Wolfsburg. Coulibaly’s price could drop further in the event of their relegation.
Therefore, Chelsea and others haven’t made offers yet for him and are playing the waiting game. As of the now, the fee is around €45m and is most likely to drop if Werder Bremen are not in the Bundesliga next season.
Contract, value and agent info
Karim Coulibaly has a contract until 2029, and his value, as per Transfermarkt, is €22m.
Cyprus based Total Sport Agency, headed by agent Nochi Hamasor, are taking care of the player’s interest and future.
Levi Colwill, Trevoh Chalobah, Wesley Fofana, Mamadou Sarr, Tosin Adarabioyo and Benoît Badiashile are the centre-backs at Stamford Bridge.
The former two are sidelined with injuries while Fofana has struggled with fitness issues since joining Chelsea in 2022. Badiashile, who also picked up injuries, hasn’t been utilised regularly this season.
Liam Rosenior’s side could look to sign a new centre-back in the summer. Coulibaly can be an option, but his recent setbacks may see the Blues take a cautious approach.