Kalidou Koulibaly has sent an emotional farewell message to Napoli fans ahead of confirmation of his impending move to .
The Senegal international has carved out a reputation as one of world football’s most dominant central defenders during his six years with the Serie A club.
Koulibably has regularly been linked with a move to the Premier League in recent years with Liverpool, and his soon-to-be new club coveting him in the past.
Now 31 years old, Koulibaly feels the time is now ideal to test himself in England where he will immediately become a key part of ’s plans given the departures of Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen earlier this summer.
Koulibaly is set to join Chelsea on a staggering reported five-year deal and will earn £160,000-a-week as he becomes one of the best paid players in Tuchel’s squad.
Not that the financial riches on offer represented the main factor in the defender’s decision to leave Napoli as he explained in an emotional message on Instagram.
He wrote: ‘June 1 20, an unforgettable date: my arrival in Naples, the beginning of a pure love story. I was a shy boy, but so eager to show the world I could do it!
‘Victories, losses, joys, disappointments. Too many emotions lived together: impossible to synthesize them.
‘But I keep it all: in my mind, my heart. My two sons were born in Naples. I’ve met people who will be a part of my life forever and made my family feel at home from the first moment to the last.
‘Thanks to you Naples I have become the man I am today. Thanks tot he club, the coaches, the President, all my teammates and all the people I had the pleasure of working with during these years.
‘Thank you Naples and Neapolitan, for all the love we gave each other.
‘I am proud to have honored you with all of me and I will continue, infinitely, to carry you in my heart and nurture for you one of the most important feeling for me: respect. You were, to me, everything.
‘Now I feel I need to leave and step back in the game, time for a new adventure.’
