Chelsea picked up the club option on striker Olivier Giroud this past spring in a bit of crafty and clever transfer business. The extension was not done with the intention of keeping the Frenchman around at Stamford Bridge longer, but instead to make sure the west London club got something in return when they sold the centre forward.
Now we know his destination- AC Milan. Journalist Fabrizio Romano reported that the Serie A club have reached an agreement “with €1m as guaranteed fee, €1m as add on.”
Olivier Giroud to AC Milan.
Discuss. pic.twitter.com/hhaof7Ce9q
— GOAL (@goal) July 8, 2021
“Giroud will sign until June 2023 once all details will be fixed. Giroud is expected to fly to Milano next week.”
An announcement is expected soon after that. Giroud has 90 goals and 32 assists in total during his 255 games in the Premier League. The Rossoneri’s plan is for the 34-year-old to join the team at their pre-season retreat in the middle of this month. Giroud is not the only centre forward who is expected to leave Chelsea this summer.
Tammy Abraham is also said to be on the trading block, and if all goes to plan, this will pave the way for the club’s audacious, big money move for Borussia Dortmund hit man Erling Haaland.
The Chelsea transfer window has been rather dull and moribund thus far, but it looks set to get pretty exciting, and quickly.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune.
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