Timo Werner has heaped praise on latest Chelsea signing Kalidou Koulibaly following his £34 million move from Napoli.
Chelsea have finally made their first defensive signing of the summer transfer window, with Senegalese centre-back Koulibaly arriving to join the Blues on their pre-season tour in the United States.
Following the departures of Antonio Rudiger to Real Madrid and Andreas Christensen to Barcelona, both on free transfers, Chelsea needed to find a way to bolster their backline heading into the new Premier League season.
Koulibaly looks to be one of the answers to the Blues’ problems, at 31-years-old he possesses a great amount of experience playing at the highest level in Europe.
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He joins Raheem Sterling, who completed a move from Manchester City on Wednesday, as the first signings of the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital era at Chelsea.
Speaking to the official Chelsea website after he was unveiled as a Blue, he stated: “I’m very happy to be here with this team at Chelsea.
“It’s a big team in the world and my dream was always to play in the Premier League.”
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He added: “Chelsea came first to get me in 2016 but we didn’t make it.
'Now when they came to me I accepted it because they really wanted me to come to the Premier League to play for them.
“When I spoke to my good friends Edou and Jorginho they made my choice easier so I’m really happy to be with you today."
He continued: “I want to thank the fans because I saw a lot of them in London and on the plane everybody was happy for me to be here. So I want to thank them and I hope the season will be really good and we will give some good moments to the fans.”
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While Koulibaly has spoken highly of the club and players around him, he has also had praise come his way since his move was made official.
Speaking to Sky Sports, new teammate Timo Werner reacted to the signing, detailing: “He’s a brilliant defender, so he will give us strength at the back, what we need after a lot of players who left us in defence.”
He went on to say: “A very good signing for the club, a good player, what I saw and played against him, when we played against Napoli. He brings exactly what we need.”
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Werner matched up against Koulibaly back in 2018 while he was still at RB Leipzig, scoring twice to help his side advance to the Round of 16 in the Europa League in the two-legged affair.
Koulibaly will be hoping he can get the better of the German when proving himself to head coach Thomas Tuchel in pre-season training.
Topics: Kalidou Koulibaly, Chelsea, Timo Werner
Sam Collins