Football
Pochettino signs first top striker for Chelsea
Chelsea have confirmed their capture of Christopher Nkunku from RB Leipzig.
The France forward has signed a six-year contract, after the two clubs pre-agreed a deal for Nkunku to make a summer move to Stamford Bridge at the end of last year.
The 25-year-old underwent medical tests early last season before an agreement was reached in December.
Nkunku, who had a buyout clause worth just under £53m in his RB Leipzig contract, should provide much-needed, additional threat to Chelsea’s goal shy attack which new head coach Mauricio Pochettino will be aiming to improve.
Chelsea released a video on Twitter confirming the news. They captioned it: ‘Nkunku is Blue!’ before posting a photo saying: Welcome Nkunku’.
Nkunku, who played a starring role for Leipzig during the 2022-2023 campaign, penned a pre-contract agreement to join Chelsea back in December.
Speaking about his move to Chelsea, Nkunku said: ‘I am incredibly happy to be joining Chelsea. A big effort was made to bring me to the club and I am looking forward to meeting my new coach and teammates and showing the Chelsea supporters what I can do on the pitch.
‘Having played in Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga, I now want to play in the Premier League, one of the strongest leagues in the world. I am very excited for this challenge and will be proud to wear the Chelsea shirt.’
Meanwhile, Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley (Chelsea’s co-sporting directors) said: ‘Christopher has proved himself one of the standout attacking players in European football over the past two seasons and will add quality, creativity and versatility to our squad.
‘He has demonstrated his ability at the highest level with RB Leipzig and France and we look forward to him joining up with his new teammates ahead of the new season.’
Nkunku helped Leipzig finish their season off in style by scoring against Eintracht Frankfurt to see Marco Rose’s side win the DFB-Pokal Cup final 2-0.
Nkunku all but confirmed his departure after the game by taking to social media to say: ‘So good to have shared these moments with you all [red heart, white heart].’
The 25-year-old made 172 appearances for the German side and left on a high after scoring 16 goals during an injury plagued season.
Despite being sidelined with injury, Nkunku still managed to finish the 2022-2023 Bundesliga campaign as the joint highest goal scorer.
He also registered six assists across the season to help his team finish third in the standings – five points behind first place Bayern Munich.
However, it was Nkunku’s performances during the 2021-2022 campaign that caught the attention of the Premier League giants.