5 Reasons why Kalidou Koulibaly could be Manchester United's Virgil van Dijk

#3 Fitness

This is a criterion where the Senegalese is even better than the Dutchman. Koulibaly has missed just 12 games due to injury in his entire career! That is just 12 games in over eight seasons!

Even though it sounds unbelievable, the Senegalese has played over 300 games in his career so far and has largely remained injury free. Considering how susceptible to injury the Manchester United back four has been in recent years, Koulibaly looks like an immediate upgrade in this regard as well.

The Senegalese's first major injury was a Metatarsal Fracture endured during his days as an FC Metz player. He was sidelined for 44 days, a span where he missed seven games between April and May. That was in the 2011/12 season!

Koulibaly has been injured twice while playing for Napoli. In the 2014/15 season, he was out for a week with a knock and missed two games. In the 2016/17 season, he sustained a sideband strain in the knee and was sidelined for 15 days, where he missed three games.

As such, with his ability to stay fit, the Senegalese could be the perfect man to solve United's defensive woes.

About the author

Deepungsu is a veteran football journalist who has been covering daily transfer roundups and news for over six years at Sportskeeda. He has written close to 9000 articles for the website, and has garnered over 19.5Million reads.

Deepungsu holds a PG degree in Microbiology and an MBA degree in Total Quality Management. He has an extensive two-decade long writing experience, which includes a decade of sports blogging. His writing prowess has even led his work getting cited on the legendary Franz Beckenbauer's Wikipedia page.

Inspired by Diego Maradona, Deepungsu played as an attacking midfielder for his local club at subdivision level in his initial years and scored an important goal or two. However, his all-time favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and evidently, he feels Argentina's glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment for fulfilling his long-standing dream. He is also an ardent East Bengal fan.

Deepungsu has been a Manchester United supporter since the year 2000. Unsurprisingly, his favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson and the Scotsman helped him get through some of the toughest days of his life. Like the fiery Scot, Deepungsu also leaves no stone unturned when it comes to accuracy in articles and only relies on credible sources.

Despite believing in Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland to create an iconic rivalry, Deepungsu reckons no one can match the longevity of Messi and Ronaldo. He spends his leisure time writing about life on his blog, reading books, and playing the guitar.

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Edited by deebak mohan