{"id":5888,"date":"2023-06-26T09:27:26","date_gmt":"2023-06-25T21:27:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=5888"},"modified":"2023-06-26T09:27:26","modified_gmt":"2023-06-25T21:27:26","slug":"kalidou-koulibaly-chelseas-senegal-defender-joins-saudi-pro-leagues-al-hilal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=5888","title":{"rendered":"Kalidou Koulibaly: Chelsea’s Senegal defender joins Saudi Pro League’s Al-Hilal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kalidou Koulibaly has become the latest Chelsea player to move to Saudi Arabia after the defender completed a transfer to Al-Hilal for an undisclosed fee.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The centre-back, 32, joins Ruben Neves at the Saudi Pro League side following the Wolves midfielder’s \u00a347m switch.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante has also\u00a0<\/span>agreed to sign for Saudi champions Al-Ittihad,<\/span><\/a>\u00a0while team-mate Edouard Mendy is\u00a0<\/span>close to joining Al-Ahli.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Koulibaly signed for Chelsea from Napoli last July\u00a0<\/span>on a four-year deal.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

He arrived at Stamford Bridge with European and international experience, after helping Napoli win the Italian Cup in 2020 and Senegal claim the Africa Cup of Nations in 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n

But he played just 32 games for the club in all competitions, scoring two goals in 23 Premier League appearances.<\/span><\/p>\n

“From my first game to my last, it was an honour to wear this badge,”\u00a0<\/span>Koulibaly said on Twitter.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

“Last season wasn’t the one we wanted, but I want to thank the fans and everyone at the club for your support.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Chelsea did not disclose how much Al-Hilal have paid for Koulibaly – but reports suggest it\u00a0<\/span>could be as much as \u00a320m<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

source bbc<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kalidou Koulibaly has become the latest Chelsea player to move to Saudi Arabia after the defender completed a transfer to Al-Hilal for an undisclosed fee. The centre-back, 32, joins Ruben Neves at the Saudi Pro League side following the Wolves midfielder’s \u00a347m switch. Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante has also\u00a0agreed to sign for Saudi champions Al-Ittihad,\u00a0while […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5888"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5890,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5888\/revisions\/5890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}