Chelsea have agreed personal terms with Wesley Fofana while Leicester City are coming round to the idea of selling their star centre-back, according to reports. Having missed out on a number of defensive targets, the Blues have made a concerted effort to capture the 21-year-old and, after weeks of pushing, finally appear to have made a breakthrough.
Thomas Tuchel’s side have already seen two bids rejected for Fofana by the Foxes with Brendan Rodgers continuing to insist the Frenchman is not for sale. When probed on the defender’s future on Thursday, the Leicester boss confirmed two offers had indeed been lodged, but reiterated that they were nowhere near matching the East Midlands club’s valuation for the centre-back, who penned a five-year deal at the King Power as recently as March.
However, despite publicly playing down speculation that Fofana could soon move to Stamford Bridge, it appears progress is being made from a Blues perspective behind the scenes. According to FootMercato, Chelsea have in fact agreed personal terms with Fofana while the belief is that in recent days, Leicester have opened the door to the defender’s departure.
The French outlet claim the Foxes have informed Chelsea that Fofana will be allowed to leave should their asking price be met. Leicester are said to be holding out for upward of £80million for the centre-back, as they seek to secure a deal which would make the France Under-21 international the most expensive defender in history – exceeding a similar fee paid to the Foxes by Manchester United for Harry Maguire back in 2019.
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The Blues boss did, however, admit that he remained intent on adding another central defender to his ranks, following the arrival of Kalidou Koulibaly, before the transfer window closes. He added: “We could use one more central defender. If you look at the numbers and given the fact that at the moment, we play with a back three.
“The profile of the guys in the back three is a little bit different, I admit. Azpi (Cesar Azpilicueta) is more of a full-back than a central defender, Cucurella is possible in a certain position, but both of them cannot play as the central defender, so we could use one more. Let’s see what happens.”
