Matthijs de Ligt insists he never spoke to Chelsea in the summer before joining Bayern Munich from Juventus

Matthijs de Ligt has denied that he was close to a move to Chelsea before signing for Bayern Munich in the summer.

Chelsea contacted Juventus about the availability of the Dutch defender but the Blues were unable to find an agreement with De Ligt only having eyes for Bayern.

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The former Ajax star opened up on both the links with Chelsea and his happiness at signing for the Bundesliga champions.

“Yes, but that wasn’t to do with me. “I had my sights on Bayern," said the 23-year-old when asked if he entered into negotiations with the Blues.

“It wasn’t close with me but maybe [it was between] the clubs. Honestly, I didn’t speak to them this summer. There were a lot of rumours that didn’t come from me.”

De Ligt continued: “[Bayern] is amazing. I am having a nice time there. It feels like home after many months.

“I think the way I played with Bayern gave me the opportunity to play the first game [of the World Cup] so I feel I made a good decision and I am really happy there.”

After being rebuffed in their attempts, Chelsea splashed their cash elsewhere by securing the signatures of Wesley Fofana from Leicester and Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli.

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De Ligt is part of the Netherlands squad that have secured safe passage into the quarter-final.

Louis van Gaal’s side face Argentina on Friday for a place in the semi-finals and De Ligt will be hoping he can force his way into the reckoning after making just one start so far.

De Ligt started the Netherlands’ opening group game against Senegal but has since been banished to the bench. He was introduced in the final minute of Saturday's 3-1 victory over the USA.

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On his lack of game time he said: “Every player wants to play but we are a group of 26 players. I have already played more than I expected because I thought I would play nothing at this World Cup.

“I know my role and I train hard every day to help the team. I am okay. It might be the way of playing and the coaching of the team [that explains why] so I am okay. We won together again and we’re in the quarter finals so it is okay.”