Three reasons Wesley Fofana is pushing for Chelsea move
FT Desk
- 17 Aug 2022 10:47 BST
- 3 min read
Wesley Fofana has been linked with a summer transfer from Leicester to Chelsea, and the player is increasingly agitating for a move to Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea lost Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen on frees to Real Madrid and Barcelona earlier this summer, and the need for more centre-backs was pronounced.
Kalidou Koulibaly has since been recruited from Napoli in a €40 million deal, and he opened his Chelsea account with a fine volley in last Sunday's 2-2 draw with Tottenham Hotspur.
But Chelsea plan to continue bolstering their backline, and tentative bids for Fofana have so far been rebuffed, with Leicester said to want a "Harry Maguire fee" for the young Frenchman.
Chelsea need to pay a "Harry Maguire fee" for Wesley Fofana 💰@jacobsben with the latest on the Leicester defender 👇 pic.twitter.com/455KKgQd2m
— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) August 5, 2022
"He's a top young defender and there are not too many around his age," said Foxes manager Brendan Rodgers. "Another year here for him at least would be really important for his development."
But there are good reasons for Fofana to get moving now.
First, Chelsea can offer Champions League football and Leicester can't. The Blues may have been 19 points off Manchester City's league-winning pace last season, but they still finished third, 22 points and five placed better off than Leicester, who missed out on Europe altogether.
European champions as recently as 2021, Chelsea even have a chance to win the competition with the squad also strengthened by the summer acquisitions of Raheem Sterling from Man City for £47.5m/€56m and Marc Cucurella from Brighton for £62m/€74m.
If you're good enough...
Fofana may be 21, but so were Kai Havertz, Mason Mount and Reece James when they took to the Estadio do Dragao field in the 2021 showpiece. There is no need to wait.
Of course, pulling up a chair to European football's top table also puts Fofana more firmly in the spotlight for Didier Deschamps' World Cup squad.
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Competition at centre-back is fierce in the France squad, with Raphael Varane, Clement Lenglet and Dayot Upamecano missing their more recent Nations League squad and Aymeric Laporte even switching his international allegiance to Spain ahead of Euro 2020.
Finally, it is worth remembering the Fofana grew up a Chelsea fan. Born in Marseille, his favourite player was Didier Drogba, who swapped the Velodrome for Stamford Bridge in 2004.
Drogba powered Chelsea to Champions League glory against Bayern Munich in 2012, and Fofana would love to emulate the Ivorian, even if he is a centre-back.
