Chelsea handed boost in transfer race to sign 25-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo teammate: Reports
Chelsea have been handed a huge boost with AC Milan reducing their asking price for Rafael Leao, who is a target for the Blues, as per TeamTalk. Leao, 25, joined Milan from Lille in 2019, and has three years left on his current contract at San Siro.
Chelsea have had a long-standing interest in the attacker, and recent reports have claimed that the Premier League club have opened talks with AC Milan for the signature of the Portugal international. However, Leao’s release clause, which is set at €175 million (£146m), seems to stand in Chelsea's way.
Despite being contracted until 2028, Rafael Leao is expected to leave AC Milan during the 2025 summer transfer window. Champions League football next season is starting to look like a distant dream for the Rossoneri as they currently sit in the ninth position on the Serie A table.
Sergio Conceicao’s side are preparing for a busy summer. They may have to part ways with some of their key players to raise funds to make new additions to the team.
According to TEAMtalk, AC Milan have reduced Rafael Leao’s asking price from €175 million to €100 million (£83m) in order to facilitate the departure of the player. This will come as music to the ears of Leao’s suitors, especially Chelsea, who currently seem to be leading the race.
Apart from Chelsea, Barcelona and Liverpool are also monitoring Leao’s situation at AC Milan. Leao has scored 10 goals and provided 10 assists this term for the Rossoneri.
Chelsea interested in signing £50m-rated Premier League star – Reports
According to GiveMeSport, Chelsea are stepping up their interest to sign Brighton & Hove Albion goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen in the summer transfer window. The Blues’ first-choice goalie, Robert Sanchez, has made a couple of costly errors this term.
Sanchez was eventually replaced with Flip Jorgensen as the club’s first-choice goalkeeper by Enzo Maresca.
However, Jorgensen doesn’t appear to be an upgrade over Sanchez, as he also committed a blunder late on in his side’s Premier League game against Aston Villa that saw them fall to a 2-1 defeat.
While Maresca has maintained that Jorgensen will retain his starting spot despite the error, Chelsea will be looking out for a new first-choice goalkeeper as the summer window approaches.
As per the abovementioned source, the feeling internally at Chelsea is that Bart Verbruggen has the trait to be a good fit for them.
The report further added that the Blues would have to cough up a significant fee for the Dutch shotstopper. This is because Bayern Munich have also shown interest, and that has made Brighton place a fee of not less than £50 million on their goalkeeper.
Verbruggen has kept seven clean sheets in 28 appearances for the Seagulls this season.