Sunday Express

NEW BOY KALI IS TERRY GOOD

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CHELSEA midfielder Jorginho rates Kalidou Koulibaly so highly he believes the Senegal colossus will wear John Terry’s old No.26 shirt with distinctio­n. Legendary centre-back Terry has already given his seal of approval to the £34million defender who replaces Antonio Rudiger.

While Jorginho admitted Koulibaly is not yet aware of the significan­ce of the shirt, he believes it will not weigh heavy on his friend and team-mate.

“He has a big personalit­y and I am pretty sure and hope so much that he does so well in the same way,’’ said Jorginho.

“He obviously won’t have the same impact because of the all the history that

Terry has, and he is respectful for

Terry. But I hope the shirt number brings him luck.”

Terry, who lifted 15 major trophies and reached three finals with Chelsea, tweeted last week: “Top signing this is.”

Jorginho added: “I think in time Kalidou will realise the importance of the shirt number and will bring with him respect for that number, showing respect and worth.”

Asked about the role he played in the Koulibaly’s transfer, Jorginho – who played with him at Napoli – revealed he began pushing for his friend to join him at

Chelsea some time ago.

“Last year,” he laughed. “It was a lot. We always said as a joke: ‘Let’s play together again, let’s play together again.’

“It never happened

PREMIER LEAGUE new boys Nottingham

Forest lost 1-0 to the Bundesliga’s Union Berlin. Jordan Siebatcheu bundled home the winner

in the 36th minute.

Wolfsburg hammered Brentford 4-0, with

Bees boss Thomas Frank admitting his side “weren’t good enough on the ball in enough spells” to compete, while Brighton

boss Graham Potter hailed a “big step forward” in the Seagulls’ preparatio­ns with a 2-1 win at Reading. Leicester beat Preston by the same scoreline at Deepdale thanks to goals from Jamie Vardy and

Harvey Barnes. properly and when we saw that okay, maybe its not a joke anymore, we started to be more serious about it.

“I was like, ‘Come on, come to Chelsea.and he was like,‘ah yeah I would like to’. It has been a long time since we played together.”

Jorginho believes Koulibaly is the perfect replacemen­t for the combative Rudiger, who is now at Real Madrid.

He said: “I think so. He was the best choice and I said before that the first name it has to be is Kalidou Koulibaly.

“Because of the player he is and the person he is in the changing room. He can add to the club and to his team-mates.

“He is an experience­d player, but not just brilliant when he is on the pitch.as a person in the changing room he is just amazing. He is such a nice guy and will bring a lot to this

club.”

 ?? ?? CLASS MATES:
Jorginho and Koulibaly in their
Napoli days
CLASS MATES: Jorginho and Koulibaly in their Napoli days

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