OFFICIAL: Chelsea star Conor Gallagher completes Atletico Madrid transfer

Tom Weber

Updated: 21 Aug 2024 11:54 BST
3 min read

Conor Gallagher, Atletico Madrid — © IMAGO

Chelsea star Conor Gallagher has officially joined Atletico Madrid.

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The England international will suit up in LaLiga next season. Gallagher has completed a €42 million transfer to Atletico Madrid after essentially being told that he has no future at Chelsea.

The Blues had reportedly offered the 24-year-old a new contract several times, but the terms on the table were only for two years with an additional optional season. This, it has been claimed, was done because there were concerns about Gallagher's suitability to coach Enzo Maresca's system.

READ MORE: Latest Chelsea transfer news

The player was not willing to only extend his stay for a couple of campaigns and neither was he ready to only be a squad player at the club he starred for the previous season. However, he also did not want to leave his boyhood side for free next year.

Thus, in the small hours of Monday, 5 August, Gallagher informed Atletico that he was ready to accept their offer, doing so shortly before a deadline set by the club passed. After the deal stalled because Chelsea's move for Samu Omorodion broke down, the midfielder has signed a five-year contract with the Spanish side, with Joao Felix expected to move in the opposite direction.

Gallagher leaves Chelsea

Though Chelsea fans won't be happy about seeing yet another academy graduate depart, Maresca has claimed that Premier League Profit and Sustainability Rules are essentially forcing the club's hand.

Gallagher is part of a massive transfer domino that also involved Julian Alvarez and should have included Samu Omorodion. The latter was supposed to move to Chelsea from Atletico for €42m, so it would have almost been an informal swap deal with the England star.

Chelsea had been chasing Omorodion all summer and finally got the green light from Atletico when the Madrid outfit struck a massive deal with Man City for Julian Alvarez, signing him for up to €95m.

However, Chelsea's transfer of Omorodion collapsed at the final hurdle, leaving them and Atletico scrambling to find a different player to send to Stamford Bridge in exchange for Gallagher, eventually settling on former Blues loanee Joao Felix, who is returning to Stamford Bridge for around €50m.