Official: Chelsea complete Wesley Fofana signing from Leicester City
Karan Tejwani
- Updated: 31 Aug 2022 13:44 BST
- 3 min read
Chelsea have completed the signing of defender Wesley Fofana from Leicester City for a £70m/€81m fee which could rise to £80m/€93m, as the defender signs a seven-year contract.
Fofana signs a contract with the Blues until June 2029, and gives Chelsea a long-term option in defence with the 21-year-old expected to have a bright future in the game.
The Frenchman was Chelsea’s priority target in defence and they were persistent, initially beating off competition from Paris Saint-Germain and then staying stern in negotiations.
Fofana, too, was adamant on the move as he wanted to build his status and improve ahead of the World Cup, with the player hoping to break into the France squad.
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Chelsea pay big for Leicester defender
Leicester initially rejected two bids from Chelsea for Fofana and were adamant they wanted a world record fee for a defender if he was to move to Stamford Bridge.
The world record transfer involved them when Harry Maguire moved to Manchester United for an £80 million fee back in 2019, and Leicester wished to top that.
However, it became clear that it wasn’t going to happen and they were only going to get something close to that, and with Fofana eager to leave, the deal became slightly easier for Chelsea to complete.
The timing of the transfer gives Leicester a couple of days to make some later moves and bring in an adequate replacement for Fofana.
So far, Leicester are the only Premier League club to have not made a signing this summer, and that is likely to change as they come closer to the transfer deadline.
Chelsea, meanwhile, are Europe’s biggest spenders and could well break the record for most money spent in a single window ever if they get their other targets after Fofana.
Fofana becomes their third defensive signing of the year having brought in Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli and Marc Cucurella from Brighton earlier in the window.
The Blues are still not done as they’re targeting a new forward as well as another winger, with talks ongoing for Barcelona’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Everton’s Anthony Gordon.
