Chelsea in talks for PROLIFIC €30m striker

Robin Bairner

• Updated: 10 Jul 2023 11:07 BST
• 4 min read

Chelsea are already in talks for Montpellier striker Elye Wahi, according to reports in France, and will send their first official offer for the promising attacker before the end of the week.

The Blues have made a habit of targeting Europe’s finest young talent in the transfer market over the course of the last year, and Wahi is an attainable player.

The 20-year-old has just a year to run on his contract with Montpellier and is coming off a season in which he scored 19 goals in Ligue 1, including a spectacular overhead that won the Goal of the Season award.

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Indeed, Wahi’s potential is underlined by the fact that he reached 20 top-flight goals in France quicker than the likes of Karim Benzema and Thierry Henry, with only Kylian Mbappe quicker than him to this figure.

Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino has had limited opportunity to see Wahi live, despite his time in France with PSG. The striker played just 33 minutes of action against the Parisians across four matches when the Argentine was at Parc des Princes.

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Chelsea face Frankfurt competition for Wahi

Montpellier president Laurent Nicollin admitted in Midi Libre that “a German club and an English club” are chasing the player, and now it has been revealed by L’Equipe that it is Eintracht Frankfurt and Chelsea who are the teams in question.

According to the French source, the Blues are also interested in Frankfurt striker Randal Kolo-Muani, but the deals are mutually exclusive, meaning that Wahi’s destination will not have an impact on the future of the France forward.

Union Berlin, Lazio and Bournemouth have already made offers for Wahi this summer, but he has rejected these.

Montpellier are hopeful of securing around €30m for the young attacker, who scored 11 times in his final 12 games for the club in Ligue 1 last season and is a France U21 international.

FootballTransfers’ algorithm values Wahi at €13m, with a notable dip in his value coming this month as he entered the final year of his contract.

Montpellier, though, will appreciate Chelsea’s big-spending reputation and will be eager to extract maximum value for their young forward.