Chelsea and Man City join Locatelli bidding war

Carlo Garganese

• Updated: 4 Jun 2021 12:53 BST
• 2 min read

Chelsea and Manchester City have joined Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain in the race to sign Sassuolo and Italy midfielder Manuel Locatelli.

Locatelli has emerged as one of Europe’s most admired midfielders over the last year and seems likely to leave Sassuolo this summer.

Juventus are considered the favourites to buy the 23-year-old, having had an offer for the creative midfielder rejected a year ago.

READ MORE: Profile: Who is Manuel Locatelli?

However, according to TuttomercatoWeb, a bidding war among Europe’s biggest clubs is now in danger of erupting.

Chelsea and Manchester City have both made offers for the former Milan starlet – who is valued at €40 million - as have PSG.

TMW also report that new Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti is a huge fan of Locatelli and could try to sign the star in an attempt to revamp an ageing midfield which includes a 35-year-old Luka Modric and 31-year-old Toni Kroos.

Sassuolo confirm Locatelli offers

“It’s true that Juventus made their move for Locatelli last summer, but only foreign clubs have shown a concrete interest in him of late,” Sassuolo CEO Giovanni Carnevali told Tuttosport on Thursday.

“We are just at the beginning, but their intentions seem to be serious. We are open to everything, we’ll try to make Locatelli happy even if we need to sell nobody. In case, we would prefer not to include any other player in the deal.

“We’ll evaluate the right offer with the player, the same is true of Jeremie Boga, it’s not true that he wants to leave at all costs.”

Locatelli has made 99 appearance for Sassuolo since arriving from Milan in 2018, scoring seven goals.

Technically gifted and difficult to shrug off the ball, Locatelli has been included in Italy’s squad for Euro 2020.

He has one goal in nine appearances for Italy.