Serie A star says ‘goodbye’ to his team-mates as he packs up house ahead of £52m Man Utd transfer

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6 November 2024, 07:15 yayınlandı

Napoli defender Kim Min-Jae said ‘goodbye’ to his team-mates on Monday and started packing up his house ahead of a move to Man Utd, according to reports.

in the summer transfer window.

The reason Man Utd have not yet lodged an official bid is because they are waiting to trigger his €60m (£52m) release clause in a two-week window at the beginning of July.

Kim’s agent admitted in mid-May that Man Utd are interested in signing the Napoli centre-back but at that time there had been “no concrete contact”.

His agent told Star News Korea: “Kim is concentrated on seeing out the season, besides which we still don’t know which English clubs will qualify for the Champions League next term.

“There is no rush for the future. United were interested in him when he was still in China, but we only ever chatted about that.

“I repeat, there has been no concrete contact. In any case he has to enrol for military service in June.”

But now Italian publication Il Mattino claim that ‘the movers arrived’ on Monday afternoon to help pack up his house ahead of a move away from Naples.

The report added that there was ‘no time to sober up’ following Napoli’s title party, after they won the Scudetto for the first time in 33 years, with Kim putting the winners medal ‘in the last box’ before moving.

It is claimed ‘all the shirts of the season’ including ‘ones he asked his teammates to give him as a farewell gift’ were loaded into a truck with ‘one package on top of another’ put in the back.

They add that his future is ‘already written’ and that he will ‘not return to Naples’ with the headline claiming he has ‘never been so close’ to a move to Man Utd.

Kim said ‘goodbye’ to his Napoli team-mates on Monday ahead of the ‘British sirens’ with the South Korea international allowing ‘himself one last lap of the field’.

The imminent nature of Kim’s reported transfer to Man Utd has surprised some with Rio Ferdinand not convinced a new centre-back should be a priority.

Speaking in mid-May, Ferdinand told Vibe with Five: “I don’t think Manchester United need to look for a number-one centre-back right now.

“I don’t think the priority is to sign a centre-back. The priority is to keep them fit. I would go out and try and sign the best young centre half, that’s what I’d go for.

“I think Man United’s worst period of the season apart from Brentford and Brighton has been since the two [senior] centre-backs have been out.”