Chelsea
are interested in Juventus centre-back Matthijs de Ligt, reports Sky in
Italy.
The 22-year-old Netherlands defender has a £103m (€120m) release clause in
his Juventus contract, which is due to expire in 2024, and the club will
only entertain offers close to that mark.
Juventus club chiefs met with De Ligt's agent Rafaela Pimenta on Thursday,
mainly to speak about Paul Pogba's potential return to Turin.
Chelsea are looking for defensive reinforcements in this transfer window,
having seen Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen leave upon the
expiration of their contracts.
Juventus agreed to pay an initial fee of €75m (£67.8m) across five financial
years to Ajax for De Ligt in 2019, making him the most expensive defender in
Italian top-flight history.
De Ligt - Ajax's youngest-ever captain - led the Eredivisie club to a
domestic league and cup double that year, as well as taking them to the
Champions League semi-finals in which they lost to Tottenham in the final
seconds in Amsterdam.
He has played 87 times for Juve in Serie A, winning the division in 2019/20
although they have not progressed past the Champions League last 16.
'Lukaku deal means Chelsea can press play
on incomings'
Sky Sports News chief reporter Kaveh Solhekol:
"The deal will be done and Lukaku is also getting his wish. He is returning
to Inter Milan. Obviously, Chelsea paid £97.5m for him and the move hasn't
worked out. Inter are paying a £7m loan fee and he's also taking a pay-cut
of around 35 per cent to return to Inter as it's what he wants to do.
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"It's good news for Chelsea that this situation has been sorted out as they
can really now press play when it comes to signing players. We know they
want to sign a centre-back because Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger
have left.
"Sky Italy are telling us that they're very interested in signing Juventus
centre-back Matthijs de Ligt. His situation is a little bit complicated as
he still has two years left on his contract but Chelsea would like to sign
him. He has a release clause which is around €120m - there's no way Chelsea
would pay that sort of money for him.
"Another defender they're interested in is Jules Kounde at Sevilla. They've
been trying to sign him for a very long time - I wouldn't be surprised if
there were major developments on that front. They're interested in
Richarlison, Raphinha, the long-term target Declan Rice who'd be very
difficult to sign but now that Lukaku has been sorted out, expect to see a
lot of deals being done by Chelsea."
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