Chelsea have agreed a £17m deal to sign French centre-back Mamadou Sarr from Strasbourg, according to reports.
Sarr, 19, has made 12 appearances for Ligue 1 side Strasbourg since joining from Lyon last summer.
Todd Boehly’s BlueCo consortium, which took over Chelsea in 2022, also own Strasbourg so a deal was reached amicably.
Chelsea, who have spent heavily since Boehly purchased the club from Roman Abramovich, will pay around £17m to sign Sarr.
However, the 19-year-old will remain at Strasbourg for the rest of the season before arriving at Stamford Bridge in the summer.
Despite featuring heavily for the youth teams, Sarr only made two first-team appearances for Lyon before being sold last summer for around £6m.
Sarr signed a five-year deal with Strasbourg but will be heading to Chelsea after just one season with the club.
The highly-rated teenage defender is eligible to play for Senegal but chose France as a youth player and captained the U17 team on several occasions.
Sarr captained France to U17 European Championship glory in the 2022 tournament in Israel and has long been tipped as a future senior international.
Strasbourg are currently 10th in Ligue 1 with six wins, six draws and six defeats in 18 games.
Chelsea, meanwhile, have dropped to sixth in the Premier League after failing to win any of their last five games.
Enzo Maresca has complained about his defensive options in recent weeks and the Blues decided to recall Trevoh Chalobah from his loan spell at Crystal Palace last week.
Chelsea have been linked with a stunning move for England defender Marc Guehi – who they sold three years ago – but Sarr’s arrival may make that deal more unlikely.
The west London club brought over ten new players to Stamford Bridge last summer – including big-money signings Pedro Neto and Joao Felix.
Chelsea enjoyed a superb first-half to the season, emerging as genuine title contenders under Maresca, but a major blip over the festive period has seen them slip outside the Champions League places.
The Blues will be desperate to record their first league win since December 15 on Monday night when they face Wolves at Stamford Bridge.
‘On the pitch, for sure I would like to win more games, but I’m OK,’ Maresca said ahead of the Wolves clash.
‘Off the pitch it’s a disaster because [there are] so many noises that I don’t think help us, but I don’t think they help any club.
‘It’s for every club [and] every manager. When there is any noise about some player, it’s not easy, because even if you think the player can be focused on us, in the end they are human beings.
‘So if there is any noise about some different clubs, probably [the player] is not focused 100 per cent, so it doesn’t help.’
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