Conor Gallagher has agreed to sign for Atletico Madrid after Chelsea accepted a cut-price £34m deal for the England midfielder.
Gallagher spent the weekend mulling over a move to the Spanish club after rejecting Chelsea’s offer of a contract extension.
It will bring to an end the boyhood Blues fan’s 16-year association with the south-west London club, who he joined at the age of eight.
Last summer Gallagher was the subject of a £40m bid from Tottenham Hotspur, but the Blues held onto the academy product.
With just one year left on his current contract, however, and the 24-year-old unwilling to sign a new deal, Chelsea have decided to cash in.
Gallagher is reported to have been unhappy at the length of Chelsea’s contract offer and the fringe role he was likely to play under new head coach Enzo Maresca.
He will become the latest current England player to move to another of Europe’s top leagues, joining the likes of Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham.
Kane has continued his prolific goalscoring since signing for Bayern Munich last summer, while Bellingham went from Borussia Dortmund to Real Madrid.
Fellow former Chelsea academy graduates Fikayo Tomori and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, meanwhile, are leading players for AC Milan.
Gallagher’s imminent exit continues the exodus of former Chelsea youth players since the Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium bought the club in summer 2022.
He would be the 11th player nurtured by the Blues as a youngster to be offloaded, following the likes of Mason Mount, Loftus-Cheek, Billy Gilmour and Callum Hudson-Odoi and Lewis Hall.
Gallagher’s England teammate Kieran Trippier also had a spell with Atletico Madrid before joining current side Newcastle United.