It's a
deal
that will have been played out at a handful of million euros.
A small handful that will have made all the difference, despite the progress of negotiations between Arsenal and Shakhtar Donetsk for several weeks around the nugget of the Ukrainian club, winger Mykhaïlo Mudryk (22).
Tipped to join the
Gunners
, a destination that seemed to have the favor of the player, he should finally engage in the next few hours with Chelsea, the neighbor and rival.
It was the transfer window journalist Fabrizio Romano who announced, on Saturday evening, Chelsea's decisive progress in the negotiations.
Since then, the agreement between the two clubs has been confirmed by several media and by the clubs themselves, on their social networks.
The
Blues
would have won the bet by agreeing to access the financial demands of the Ukrainian club, which wanted 100 million euros for its player.
A symbolic level that Arsenal will never have wanted to reach, carrying its best offer around 95 million euros according to several media sources.
FC Shakhtar president Rinat Akhmetov and Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali discussed Mykhailo Mudryk's transfer to Chelsea FC today.
Parties are very close to agree on player's transfer to the club.#Shakhtar pic.twitter.com/IoHOaFRfn5
— FC SHAKHTAR ENGLISH (@FCShakhtar_eng) January 14, 2023
Chelsea, for her part, will have been less shy.
While his interest in the player surfaced about ten days ago, the club would have turned the wheel in his direction by offering 70 million euros fixed, 30 million bonuses and, as is often done in England, a contract of more than 7 years at Mudryk to absorb this heavy expense as much as possible.
This is what Chelsea had already done this season for Wesley Fofana (under contract until 2029), Marc Cucurella (2028) or Benoît Badiashile (2030), who has just signed with the
Blues
for seven and a half years .
455 million spent in one season, a record
10th in the Premier League after a complicated start to the season, marked in particular by numerous injuries (Mendy, Fofana, Chilwell, James, Kanté, Zakaria, Sterling, Pulisic, Broja, etc.), Chelsea, bought in 2022 by American billionaire Ted Boehly, following the withdrawal of the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, spares no expense to raise the bar.
Not counting Mudryk, the
Blues
have already added 12 players to their squad since this summer for 355 million euros.
A total which will therefore be increased to 455 million euros once the transfer of Mudryk is completed, it is more than any other club in a single season in the history of football.
In any case, it is a very unexpected turnaround and an event that will raise high expectations for the performance of young Mudryk, whose value is estimated at 40 million euros by the specialized site Transfermarkt.
Which never stopped Darijo Srna, the Ukrainian club's football director, from telling L'Equipe: "With all due respect, don't tell me that Grealish (transferred to Manchester City for 117M €) and Antony (transferred to Manchester United for €95m) are better players than Mudryk.
In his position
,
he is the third best young person in the world behind Vinicius and Mbappé.
The 22-year-old left winger has scored 10 goals in 24 games this season, and has particularly stood out in the Champions League with Shakhtar (3 goals, 2 assists in 6 games).
In an interview with the Ukrainian media Sportarena last November, Mudryk, who had always made Arsenal his priority in the event of a departure for England, nevertheless declared: "When I learned my price, I was not only surprised , I was shocked.
The amount of 100 million constitutes a barrier for my passage to the high level championship, of which I dreamed so much.
I can't say that my dream is killed, but hurt - that's for sure (...) I'm 100% sure that a player from the Ukrainian championship is unlikely to be bought for 100 million.
He had underestimated the Premier League.
