Chelsea have signed England left-back Ben
Chilwell from Leicester on a five-year deal for
an undisclosed fee.
Chilwell is Chelsea's third addition of the
summer after the arrivals of winger Hakim
Ziyech, 27, from Ajax and striker Timo
Werner, 24, from RB Leipzig.
The defender, 23, is a Leicester academy
product who made his debut for the club in
2015, and had a contract with the Foxes
until 2024.
He missed the final five matches of the
2019-20 season with a foot injury.
Chelsea took fourth place and a Champions
League place at the expense of Leicester on
the final day of the Premier League season
in July.
"I'm looking forward to being a part of this
young, dynamic squad led by Frank Lampard
as we challenge for honours next season,"
said Chilwell, who has 11 England caps.
Timo Werner: How Chelsea move
happened and how he will fit in
"He [Lampard] does play the younger players
if they are good enough and just from
speaking to him, I'm really excited to be
here. I think the way the gaffer sets his
teams up suits my game perfectly."
Chilwell made a total of 123 appearances for
Leicester and scored four goals, three of
them coming in the Premier League last
season.
Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia added:
"We are confident Ben will adapt very
quickly to being a Chelsea player and with
the fixture programme for 2020-21
especially busy, he is a fantastic addition to
the squad needed to challenge for honours."
Analysis - Foxes' shrewd business model
Ian Stringer, BBC Radio Leicester
Chilwell joining fellow Foxes Danny
Drinkwater and N'Golo Kante at Chelsea
continues a model of selling one of their
'stars' every year since Kante left for Chelsea
in 2016.
Drinkwater followed him to west London in
2017, Riyad Mahrez went to Manchester City
in 2018 and Harry Maguire joined
Manchester United in 2019.
It balances the books and allows
reinvestment for Leicester - on what is not a
bad return at all. Those five players cost a
total £24.1m. Leicester sold them collectively
for £250m over four years - and still finished
above Arsenal and Tottenham last season.
Shrewd.
www.bbc.com/sport/football/53913585?iorg_service_id_internal=624173547714020%3BAfoIBdD3bLUUoq8i

X