Inter Eyeing Another Up-and-Coming Sassuolo Player | OneFootball

Inter are leading the race for Tarik Muharemovic, but their talks with Sassuolo could expand to Ismael Koné. He has had a solid maiden season in Serie A after being discarded by Olympique Marseille.

According to TuttoSport, the Nerazzurri are laying the groundwork for a proper overhaul of their midfield. Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Davide Frattesi, and Hakan Calhanoglu might all leave for various reasons. They acquired Yanis Massolin from Modena in January and will likely bring back Aleksander Stankovic from Club Brugge for €23M.

Inter might not stop there and make an attempt for Koné. He’d add more defensive-minded traits to their corps. Sassuolo took advantage of his past issues with Roberto De Zerbi and signed on an initial €2.5M loan and eventually activated their €12.5M option to buy. Their director Giovanni Carnevali openly set a €30M price tag.

The 23-year-old has hit the net 5 times so far. He also played for Montreal CF, Watford, and Rennes in the past. He has 37 caps with Canada under his belt.

The Nerazzurri collected some info on Leon Goretzka, who’s asking for about €6.5M per year, the same wages as Nicolò Barella and Calhanoglu. Arsenal and Atletico Madrid are currently leading the race over the Serie A contenders.

Our Take on Inter and Koné

He’s having an outstanding season and is a fine contributor on both ends with a decent nose for the goal, considering he doesn’t really have many chances. However, he’s probably not that much better than Andy Diouf to justify the disbursement. Unless the mandate comes from above, they likely won’t go young with all their signings if they’ll really lose two key veterans, as the leadership void would be detrimental.