Chelsea put outrageous price tag on star who could unlock Osimhen deal

Robin Bairner

• 18 Jan 2024 01:38 CST
• 2 min read

Victor Osimhen is Chelsea’s dream signing, but if they are the capture the Napoli striker, they will first be forced into sales.

One of the players who could hold the key to Chelsea raising sufficient funds to be able to make a move for the Serie A hitman in the summer is Armando Broja, who has drifted in an out of the team since returning from a serious knee injury in the latter part of September.

The Blues have high hopes of recouping a significant fee for the 22-year-old, with Osimhen’s price tag likely to be in the region of €120 million or perhaps even higher depending on the release fee put into his new Napoli contract.

The Chelsea management team want to fund around half of that deal by selling Broja, with The Telegraph indicating that the striker has had a fee of €58m (£50m) put on his head.

What is Broja really worth?

This is an extraordinary valuation for a player who has scored only two goals in 17 appearances this season and who has only 23 senior strikes to his credit throughout his career, including loan spells at Vitesse and Southampton.

His current Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) has dipped to just €20m following his injury problems, yet before he told his ACL in December 2022, his valuation reached a maximum of €42m. This secondary figure is much closer to what Chelsea hope for the player.

Clubs are unlikely to be drawn into paying big bucks for the Albania international forward, though, until he has proven his fitness and found some form in front of goal once again. In order to do that, he will have to outmuscle Nicolas Jackson and start regularly for the Blues.

In the meantime, there is significant interest in signing the player on a loan deal. As many as eight Premier League clubs have been credited with an interest in Broja, whose six goals in 32 outings with Southampton in 2021/22 still see him placed in a favourable light.