Everton have been priced out of launching another move for Napoli star Kalidou Koulibaly, with the Italian club wanting at least £100 million for the coveted defender, according to the Daily Star.
The Toffees are no strangers to the Senegal international as their owner Farhad Moshiri made a bid of £60m for the centre-back in 2016, only to be rebuffed by the Italian outfit.
Everton are expected to look to strengthen their squad this summer, and Carlo Ancelotti is likely to get a good war chest to go into battle with, as he bids to put together a group that can get the Merseyside outfit into European competition.
The Toffees boss knows all about the talents of Koulibaly, having managed him for Napoli prior to moving to Goodison Park, so it is only natural that he maintains an interest in the star, who is widely acclaimed as the best central defender in the world along with Virgil van DIjk.
The African ace has been linked with a move to the Premier League for a while, but even though football is set to undergo financial difficulties after the coronavirus outbreak, the Italians are in no mood to let one of their best talents leave on the cheap, news that will not be good for Everton.
Should that change, the Toffees would be battling with Manchester United for the 28-year-old, with the Old Trafford outfit having monitored the situation with Koulibaly, and identified him as someone who could help them achieve their goals.
Everton have never paid more for a player than the £45m they gave Swansea City for Gylfi Sigurdsson back in 2017, so their £60m bid was a hefty one at the time it was rejected.
Those figures suggest that even if COVID19 had not impacted the globe, the Toffees would still have been unlikely to be able to afford the defender, should Napoli continue to stick to their guns and demand the full £100m for him.
