{"id":616924,"date":"2022-08-31T08:30:52","date_gmt":"2022-08-31T12:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=616924"},"modified":"2022-08-31T08:39:19","modified_gmt":"2022-08-31T12:39:19","slug":"official-chelsea-sign-wesley-fofana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/08\/31\/official-chelsea-sign-wesley-fofana\/","title":{"rendered":"Official: Chelsea Sign &#8216;Prodigiously Talented&#8217; Star"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is now official. Chelsea have secured the signing of Wesley Fofana from Leicester City in a blockbuster move for a fee of \u00a375 million.<\/p>\n<p>Gary Lineker all but confirmed the move recently in a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GaryLineker\/status\/1563445849317056518\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tweet<\/a> where he said his goodbyes to the French defender. In his tweet, Lineker referred to the 21-year-old as a &#8220;prodigiously talented young central defender&#8221;.<\/p>\n<h2>Chelsea Sign Wesley Fofana<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Welcome, Wesley! \ud83d\ude01<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/FofanaIsChelsea?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#FofanaIsChelsea<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChelseaFC\/status\/1564953709032968193?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 31, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Swift Change<\/h3>\n<p>At one point it appeared that the Foxes wouldn&#8217;t sell the young defender. Reports emerged that it would take a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/football\/2022\/08\/11\/chelsea-told-make-world-record-offer-sign-wesley-fofana\/?utm_content=football&amp;utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_campaign=Echobox&amp;utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1660282717-1\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">world record bid<\/a> to make them budge but things changed quite quickly. The player himself <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/football\/news\/11095\/12673949\/wesley-fofana-unsettled-leicester-defender-feels-foxes-are-pricing-him-out-of-dream-chelsea-transfer\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">got frustrated<\/a> and began angling for a &#8220;dream move&#8221; to Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">It is confirmed. The fee is \u00a370m guaranteed with achievable add-ons, but the final figure will not exceed \u00a380m so it isn&#39;t a world record. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LCFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#LCFC<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#CFC<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7NKVzOZFML\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/7NKVzOZFML<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Rob Tanner (@RobTannerLCFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RobTannerLCFC\/status\/1564954786805456896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 31, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/08\/24\/chelsea-exodus-free-wages-new-signings\/\" target=\"_self\">Chelsea Exodus Begins as Club Free Up \u00a3580k-a-Week for World-Class Signings<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>A Strong Signing<\/h3>\n<p>With this signing, Chelsea have completed their back line. Their current defensive lineup is a complete murderer&#8217;s row containing Thiago Silva, Kalidou Koulibaly, Marc Cucurella, Reece James, and now Fofana. The back line was the biggest issue coming into this transfer window and both Thomas Tuchel and Todd Boehly have done an impressive job filling in the gaps.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/08\/08\/todd-boehly-dinner-event-chelsea\/\" target=\"_self\">Todd Boehly Opened Transfer Talks For Two Signings at Recent Dinner Event<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Following the departures of Andreas Christensen and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/05\/10\/antonio-rudiger-joins-real-madrid\/\" target=\"_self\">Antonio Rudiger<\/a>, the centre of the defence specifically was in need of repair. While Silva and Koulibaly are on the older side, The Blues&#8217; newest signing is sure to be a cornerstone of the club&#8217;s defence for many years to come.<\/p>\n<p>While the fee was a bit high, there is often a price to pay for quality youth. If the 21-year-old can perform consistently throughout his time in London then the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RobTannerLCFC\/status\/1564954786805456896?s=20&amp;t=fsHH1UldK4K8tZLlgd60SA\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u00a370 million plus add ons<\/a> will look like a steal in no time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/premier-league-predictions\/\" target=\"_self\">Last Word on Football Provides Our Premier League Predictions for Matchweek Five<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is now official. Chelsea have secured the signing of Wesley Fofana from Leicester City in a blockbuster move for a fee of \u00a375 million. Gary Lineker all but confirmed the move recently in a tweet where he said his goodbyes to the French defender. In his tweet, Lineker referred to the 21-year-old as a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2013,"featured_media":617175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,11,15],"tags":[1407,6608],"class_list":["post-616924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transfers","category-chelsea","category-leicester-city","tag-chelsea-transfers","tag-wesley-fofana"],"modified_by":"Joseph Howes, Site Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2013"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}