Chelsea bid £38m for Kalidou Koulibaly

Napoli face a fight to keep defender Kalidou Koulibaly at the club after Chelsea made an official approach for his services on Wednesday.

New Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has wasted no time in implementing his transfer masterplan at the club, already bringing in fresh faces in the form of N’Golo Kante and Michy Batshuayi.

A third major addition could now be in the pipeline with the Blues submitting a bid for Koulibaly that Napoli will consider.

An offer of around £38 million has now been made by Chelsea report Sky Sport Italia.

If Napoli choose to accept the offer then it would represent a hefty profit on a player they bought for just €6m in 2014 from Belgian outfit Racing Genk.

Since his move to Naples, the Senegal international has blossomed into one of the finest centre backs in Italy, despite a rocky first season.

He only missed five Serie A matches last season as the Partenopei secured a second place finish, nine points behind champions Juventus .

Maurizio Sarri’s team are currently focusing their transfer efforts on a striker after Gonzalo Higuain’s

departure to Juventus , aided by the fact they signed Lorenzo Tonelli to act as defensive cover back in May.