Chelsea have signed Leicester City midfielder N’Golo Kante for £30 million. Kante is due to complete his medical within the next 24 hours after Chelsea agreed a fee with the champions and five year, £120,000-a-week deal with the midfielder.
Leicester offered the 25-year-old Kante an improved four-year contract before Euro 2016, but the midfielder has informed Foxes boss Claudio Ranieri that he wants to quit the King Power for Stamford Bridge, turning his back on Champions League football in the process.
Kanté joined Leicester from Caen, the Ligue 1 club, for around £5.5m last summer and was a stand-out member of their Premier League title-winning side.
Losing him is a big blow for the Champions, but while Ranieri has insisted he would like Kante to stay at the club, hevsaid he would understand if the 25-year-old wished to leave the King Power stadium.
“I don’t want to lose him. I don’t want to, but I could understand if he wants to go.”
Kante is Chelsea’s second signing of the summer joining £33m striker Michy Batshuayi from Marseille. But Antonio Conte is not stopping there as the Blues have been heavily linked with Napoli centre-half Kalidou Koulibaly who is valued at £50m by the Serie A club.
‘We know this club, the team, needs to reinforce,’ said Conte at an unveiling press conference at Stamford Bridge on Thursday.
‘I am sure that in the coming days we can reach our target and we can buy one, two, three… I don’t know how many players but players that can reinforce us for the season.’
If they meet Napoli’s valuation for Koulibaly it will take Chelsea’s summer spree past £110m on only three players.
The arrival of Kante is expected to see fellow midfielder Nemanja Matic leave the club, with Juventus his most likely destination.