Napoli owner reveals Liverpool’s interest in centre-back, and it’s not Kalidou Koulibaly | OneFootball

talkSPORT host Jim White has revealed that he recently had a conversation with Napoli’s owner Aurelio de Laurentiis.

The conversation was originally based on the future of Napoli centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly.

The Reds have been linked with Koulibaly in the past.

However, de Laurentiis went on to reveal to White that Liverpool have shown recent interest in Napoli centre-back Nikola Maksimovic.

Apparently Liverpool’s recent interest in Maksimovic came about when both Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez suffered their respective injuries.

De Laurentiis told White that he has not heard from Liverpool as of late.

“This morning, I spoke to Aurelio De Laurentiis, the Napoli owner, and said what about your player [Koulibaly], are there bids in for him?” White said, as quoted by the Mirror.  “He laughed it off saying he’s not for sale. He’s absolutely not for sale unless one of the big clubs in England come up with £100million.”

“He then says to me ‘I thought you were going to refer to our defender Nikola Maksimovic, the Serbian who is 29 years of age, and Liverpool ’s previous interest in him,” White added. “So I said ‘are Liverpool still interested in your defender?’ He interrupted me to say of course with injury problems to Gomez and Van Dijk but no they haven’t heard from them of late.”

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ANFIELD WATCH VERDICT

Maksimovic would be a decent January signing for Liverpool.

Maksimovic is having a reasonable season for Napoli. The centre-back has only made the seven appearances for Napoli this season.

But, when Maksimovic has been required, he has shown that he is a capable player. The 29-year-old is averaging a WhoScored player rating of 6.71 in the 2020-21 Serie A season.

Maksimovic has a current market value of €15 million, which means that it would not cost Liverpool too much money to sign him in January.

However, there is a fair possibility that when the likes of Van Dijk and Gomez return, Maksimovic will become a squad player.

With that being the case, it might be difficult to convince the centre-back to join the club in January.

Besides, there has been no news from any reliable journalist to suggest that Liverpool are genuinely looking to sign Maksimovic in January.