The newspaper reported, according to Madrid press reports, that Real Madrid has set its sights on Bay Coulibaly, as one of the options to compensate for the absence of Daniel Carvajal until the end of the season after suffering a cruciate ligament tear.
Koulibaly, who plays as a defensive midfielder and centre-back, appeared in outstanding form in the recent Youth World Cup, and is also present in the orbit of the English team Arsenal.
Barca was close to signing the promising African player, who represents the Mali U-20 team and is 18 years old, but retracted his decision due to not wanting to lose the player’s services for more than a month due to his participation in the African Cup of Nations in January.
Koulibaly belongs to the Croatian team Kostosija Zagreb, which is the same team in which Senegalese Mika Faye, the young Barcelona defender, received his training.
Barcelona has been seeking to sign promising players from the African continent in the recent period, such as Micah Faye, who the club sold for 10.3 million euros to Rennes of France after contracting with him for only 2.2 million euros, and David Oduro, who joined from Accra Lions of Ghana.