Hellas Verona president and owner Maurizio Setti has revealed that clubs came in for top prospect Marash Kumbulla 18 months ago and the club turned them away.

The highly rated Italian born Albanian national team defender has had a breakthrough season at the Stadio Marc’Antonio Bentegodi club and has found himself linked with a whole array of clubs ahead of the upcoming transfer window.

Inter, Napoli, Lazio, Fiorentina and Juventus have all been linked with the 20-year-old, who has two years left to run on his current contract with the Gialloblu club.

“We have never had any doubt about the human and technical capacity of Kumbulla. In January 2019 there were already several clubs after him, but we were convinced that he could grow further,” Setti explained in an interview with Italian daily newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, which appeared in today’s print edition of the Milan based news outlet.

This season Kumbulla, who is a product of Hellas Verona’s academy, has made 19 appearances across all competitions to date. In his time on the park, which totals just shy of 1600 minutes, Kumbulla has scored a single goal.