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Chelsea agree £25.5m deal for Benfica defender David Luiz
Chelsea have finally agreed a deal to sign David Luiz which values the much-coveted Benfica defender at €30 million (£25.5 million) — making him their most expensive transfer for five years.
The Premier League champions will pay €25 million in cash for the 23 year-old and will also sell a youth-team player — valued at €5 million – to the Portuguese club as part of the settlement.
The identity of that player was still being discussed with Benfica on Monday night. There are understood to be two options, although neither has made a first-team appearance, with Chelsea adamant they will not sell players such as Jeffrey Bruma or Patrick Van Aanholt.
That element of the transfer is not thought to be a deal-breaker, with Luiz now expected to arrive in England on Tuesday ahead of a work permit hearing which has been scheduled to take place on Wednesday in London.
Chelsea were remaining cautious, but a source close to the deal confirmed that the transfer was “almost done”, which will come as a huge relief to manager Carlo Ancelotti, who had identified Luiz as his prime transfer target in this window.
Luiz is a centre-half but can also play at left-back, or even on the right flank or as a holding midfielder, and the key to his expected signing has been Benfica’s desperation to cash in on one of their star players to ease their financial problems.
Luiz’s agent, Guiliano Bertolucci, arrived in London last Friday along with Benfica president Luis Felipe Vieira to conduct negotiations with Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck and chief executive Ron Gourlay.
Vieira had hoped to demand a fee of €30million — having dropped his price from €40million — and talks continued after his return to Portugal without an agreement on Sunday.
The breakthrough was made when Chelsea agreed to Benfica’s request for a player to be included to bump up Luiz’s valuation. However, Chelsea insisted a first-teamer would not be sold.
The likelihood is that they will offer either the Serb defender Slobodan Rajkovic or his countryman, midfielder Nemanja Matic. Both are currently on loan at Dutch club Vitesse Arnhem.
Chelsea’s hand was strengthened as Manchester City decided not to enter the bidding for Luiz. Even so the fee will be the highest Chelsea have paid since buying Andrei Shevchenko from AC Milan for almost £31 million in the summer of 2006 and Luiz will become the fifth player to join the club for more than £20 million.
With Alex yet to return from a knee injury, and with continued concern over John Terry’s back and leg problems, Luiz is likely to go straight into the Chelsea side for the remainder of the season. Once Luiz, who said his farewells to his team-mates before last weekend’s game against Nacional, has signed, Chelsea will allow Bruma to go out on loan.