Matthijs de Ligt is at a pivotal moment in his career. Two big European clubs, Chelsea and Bayern Munich are fighting for his signature this summer. Chelsea are the club most interested in the Dutchman. De Ligt is Thomas Tuchel’s primary defense target following the exit of Rudiger and Christensen.
Matthijs de Ligt joined Juventus in 2019. He cost them a whopping €75 million. But he has proved worthy of the price tag and has gone on to make more than 150 appearances for the club across all competitions. He was also instrumental in Juventus winning the title and the Coppa Italia in the 2019-20 season. However, Juventus are in a bit of a dry spell currently in the trophy department. They have had indifferent seasons under two different managers. Andrea Pirlo and Maurizio Sarri both failed to make an impact at the Allianz Stadium. Moreover, their Champions League form has also not been up to mark. They crashed out of the Champions League last summer with a humiliating 4-0 defeat to Chelsea. They also had an embarrassing exit at the hands of Unai Emery’s Villareal. All this points to the departure of De Ligt to keep his standard high.
Matthijs de Ligt was touted to be a long-term replacement for the veteran centre back Giorgio Chiellini. However, the defender has had a disagreement with the Juventus upper management amidst contract negotiations. Because of this, De Ligt has made his intention of leaving the Italian club pretty clear.
Chelsea are desperate for De Ligt and other quality defenders in their squad
Chelsea has lost two integral defenders this season. Rudiger has left Chelsea to go to Real Madrid. Andreas Christensen has left Chelsea for Barcelona. This means Chelsea are lacking in quality at the defense. Tuchel is a massive Matthijs de Ligt fan. He is pushing for Chelsea to sign the defender this season. However, it looks like they could lose the defender to Bayern this season.
Bayern Munich parted ways with Niklas Sule post his contract expired last month. They will be eager to sign a top-rated defender to replace the German. Moreover, Matthijs de Ligt’s father Frank de Ligt recently followed Bayern Munich as well as the Bavarian giants’ sister accounts in different languages on Twitter. A move to Bayern seems likely for the defender.
Chelsea will continue their pursuit of Jules Kounde if they lose De Ligt to Bayern Munich. According to The Sun, Thomas Tuchel’s side is set to resume their pursuit of the 23-year-old, who is believed to have already agreed on a five-year contract with the west London club. The Blues were heavily linked with a move for the Sevilla defender last year but they were unable to reach an agreement over the transfer fee as per The Express. He is fast, tenacious, and a physical player. All of this makes him the ideal replacement for Antonio Rudiger in the Chelsea backline.
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