It seems that Barcelona is planning to ignite a cold war with the English team Chelsea, by entering into a fierce competition with it in order to contract with one of the talents of the Spanish League during the upcoming summer transfers.
This comes in light of Barcelona’s desire to support its defense line with distinguished players next summer, in light of the aging of Gerard Pique and the approaching departure of Clement Lenglet.
According to the Spanish newspaper, “Sport”, Barcelona has entered the race to sign Jules Kounde, the Seville defender, who has recently been providing very special levels with his team.
Kounde’s name was linked, in the last period, to a move to Chelsea, but Seville’s intransigence and his major financial requests prevented the completion of the deal.
And the newspaper confirmed, that it was Xavi Hernandez who requested the contract with Kounde, next summer, in order to support the defense line.
And the newspaper pointed out that Barcelona entered into the deal and put the name of the 24-year-old French player as the most prominent summer goal.
Press reports had indicated that Kounde’s transfer to Chelsea was not completed due to a lack of agreement on the financial aspect of the deal, as the Blues offered 47 million euros to contract with the player, but Seville refused this matter.
The newspaper said that Sevilla will not consider negotiating with interested clubs over the transfer amount, and will not deposit Kounde unless his release clause of 80 million euros (£67.6 million) is activated.
Kounde presented very distinguished levels in the previous two seasons with Sevilla, whether at the local or continental level, which made him the focus of attention from more than one European club.