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Chelsea are ready to splash £48m on Falcao after he tore them apart

Published: 17:42 EDT, 1 September 2012 | Updated: 17:46 EDT, 1 September 2012

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Radamel Falcao, the Colombia striker whose hat-trick shot down Chelsea in the European Super Cup, may join the London club in January.

Reports in South America last night said a pre-agreement between Falcao's team Atletico Madrid and Chelsea has been struck in a deal expected to be worth at least £48million.

Falcao, 26, has already scored six goals in three matches this season and is seen as one of the world's deadliest strikers.

Target: Chelsea are interested in bringing Radamel Falcao in

Last season, only Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo found the net more times in La Liga than the Atletico goal machine.

But with crippling financial problems at the club and with Falcao's agent, Jorge Mendes, also in charge of transfers at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea may well get their man when the transfer window reopens on January 1. Roberto Di Matteo's side have made a promising start to the Premier League, winning their first three games.

Yet the European champions were brutally exposed in their first real test of the season in Friday's Super Cup.

And it was Falcao who did the damage, putting in a man-of-the-match performance in the 4-1 win while also becoming the first player to net a Super Cup hat-trick in 35 years.

Chelsea, Barcelona and Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala have long coveted the Colombian, but Roman Abramovich's club look set finally to win the chase.