Manchester United linked defender Kim Min-Jae continues to rack up plaudits at Serie A champions Napoli.
South Korea international defender Kim Min-Jae is the subject of strong attention from Manchester United.
Italian newspaper Il Mattino reported this week that Min-Jae wants to join the Red Devils, although Fabrizio Romano has since played down that a move is imminent.
Nonetheless, the centre-back is a big talking point in his homeland after a terrific 2022/23 season for his club.
The Napoli view on Kim Min-Jae
Marcelo Lippi’s former assistant coach Massimiliano Maddaloni has been speaking about Kim Min-Jae in an interview with Naples-based media outlets.
Maddaloni told Radio Kiss Kiss Napoli, via Area Napoli of the defender: “We are talking about an extraordinary player with truly unique technical characteristics.”
He also claims to have spoken with Napoli manager Luciano Spalletti, and relays the manager’s opinion of the South Korea international.
He explained: “I have talked to him for some time, he made me a confession about Kim, he said verbatim that for him he is the best central defender in the world.
“There’s no one else like him, he’s nothing short of extraordinary and it would be difficult to replace him because there’s none like him. He’s a great guy, a one-of-a-kind athlete, he was a huge coup.”
Napoli paid only £16 million to sign him from Fenerbahce, who a year earlier had snapped him up for just £3 million from Beijing Guoan.
Even if United pay Kim Min-Jae’s release clause, Napoli will have turned a tidy profit. The view that he is irreplaceable is not a shared one, with the Serie A champions already looking at replacements, per Tuttomercatoweb.
We will soon learn if Manchester United do share the same view that Min-Jae is ‘extraordinary’. If so, they won’t hesitate to stump up the money.
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