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Chelsea reached an agreement with Leicester City over a £70m plus deal for defender Wesley Fofana.
After three failed attempts, the breakthrough was made on Friday afternoon with Chelsea’s fourth offer and the clubs were finalising the structure on Friday night.
Fofana has provisionally agreed a six year contract after insisting that he only wanted to join Chelsea.
The 21-year old had made it clear to Leicester last week that he believed he was being priced out of a move as they sought a world record £85m for a defender.
Manager Brendan Rodgers revealed he had banished Fofana to train with the club’s U23s this week after he failed to turn up for first team training and he was not under consideration for today’s fixture with Chelsea.
Fofana joined Leicester for £36.5m from St Etienne in 2020 and has grown into one of the best defenders in the Premier League.
He emerged as Thomas Tuchel’s prime choice for his defence after Chelsea missed out on Jules Kounde and Matthijs de Ligt.
His signing will be a major boost to the German coach who had pushed owner Todd Boehly to bring in top quality reinforcements after they lost Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger at the end of last season.
Tuchel now hopes they can conclude a deal for Barcelona striker Pierre Aubameyang while they also want Everton’s Anthony Gordon and another midfielder.
Fofana’s arrival could now pave the way for defender Trevor Chalobah to leave on loan with Italian sides AC Milan, Inter and Roma all making enquiries.
His signing will conclude one of the summer’s transfer sagas with Tuchel believing the centre back can help Chelsea launch a serious challenge to Liverpool and Manchester City.