Chelsea to ‘compete’ with Liverpool, Napoli for Genk’s Sander Berge — report

According to Goal’s Nizaar Kinsella, Chelsea are “keeping tabs” on Genk midfielder Sander Berge, and are ready to “compete” with Liverpool and Napoli for his signature.

Berge has been playing in Belgium since January 2017, joining Genk from Vålerenga at just 18 years of age. Despite his young age, it did not take long for him to become a regular in Genk’s starting lineups. He’s made 102 appearances since, scoring 4 goals and recording 4 assists.

Interest in Berge has been piqued by his performances in the Champions League, as well as his current contractual situation. He has 18 months left on his contract, and it seems almost certain that he will be leaving the club soon, as acknowledged by Genk’s sporting director, Dimitri De Conde.

“Napoli are interested in Sander, it’s a possibility a deal could be done. We also know that Liverpool are interested and [Jurgen] Klopp, after the game at Anfield [in the Champions League], complimented him on his performance.

“There are clubs in Italy who are following Berge and Napoli could be one of them, but at this stage, there are no offers on the table. From next week, things could change. We haven’t had any official contact with Napoli yet.”

-Dimitri De Conde; source: Radio Punto Nuovo via Goal

While Chelsea have plenty of young talent coming through — in addition to all the young talent already in the team — the report claims that Chelsea would welcome this extra degree of competitiveness “in the right circumstances”. You can never have too much talent, after all, as long as the right decisions are made in the end (ed.note: and not incorrect ones, as with the last midfielder we signed from Genk).

Chelsea’s transfer ban hearing at CAS is this Wednesday (November 20), which could possibly result in the lifting of the ban for January, which appears to be when Genk are expecting to seal a deal for the 21-year-old — after creating a bit of a bidding war between all these supposedly interested parties.