Chelsea have announced the signing of English left-back Ben Chilwell from Leicester City for a fee of £50 million.
Ben Chilwell’s long-awaited move to Chelsea from Leicester City has been confirmed in a deal worth £50 million. The Englishman will pen down a contract worth five years.
Chilwell came through the Leicester youth academy, joining the senior team in 2015, at the age of 18, but was immediately loaned out to Huddersfield Town for a season. He failed to make an impression in the Championship playing just eight games.
He returned to Leicester after their fairy-tale 2015/16 campaign, where they went on to win the league. Chilwell got his time in the Premier League, participating in 12 games (7 starts), scoring once. His impressive cameos towards the end of the season earned him a spot in the Foxes’ starting XI, as he made 24 appearances, assisting two goals.
The 23-year-old was at the heart of things for Leicester this term as they enjoyed their best season in five years, finishing fifth in the league, despite sitting in the top three for majority of the season. He was ruled out of the squad through an injury for the most part post restart, but had managed to make 27 appearances till then, scoring and assisting three goals each.
Courtesy of such an impressive campaign, Chilwell had been linked with Chelsea for a large part of this year, with Frank Lampard wishing to make repairs to the backline that had been leaking a lot of goals. Moreover, the Blues are expecting a fire-sale for their current full-backs, Marcos Alonso, Emerson Palmieri and David Zappacosta, which could raise enough in funds to balance the books.
Chelsea have already enjoyed a busy and exceptional transfer window, securing the services of Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech for a combined total of £84 million. And, Chilwell had reportedly been eager to join the two new arrivals at Chelsea for quite some time now. The move has finally been completed now, with the Blues paying £50 million for his services.
