Rumour: Chelsea closing in on Saint Etienne central defender Kurt Zouma

Lisandro of Olympique Lyon controls the ball ahead of Zouma of St Etienne during their French Ligue 1 soccer match at the Geoffroy Guichard stadium

Reports are suggesting that Chelsea are closing in on Saint Etienne’s highly-rated central defender Kurt Zouma and could sign him later this week.

Chelsea will pay the French club around £11 million if reports are to be believed as Jose Mourinho looks to inject some youth into his ageing squad.

Zouma recently confirmed that he and Mourinho had spoken about a move to Stamford Bridge and claimed that his favourite colour was blue, to entice the move even further.

The Blues look set to beat both Manchester clubs, Monaco and Arsenal to the signing of Zouma and he could complete the move at some point this week.

He would join up with another new signing Nemanja Matic who played his first game since returning the club last week against Manchester United on Sunday.

Matic was sent to Benfica as part of the David Luiz transfer three years ago but the Blues paid around £20m for the Serbian to return to Stamford Bridge last week.

Zouma has just returned from an eight-match ban for breaking another player’s leg but has won 92% of his tackles (11/12) this season.