Chelsea paid £20m to Villarreal to sign goalkeeper Filip Jörgensen
As Reported by Fabrizio Romano, Chelsea Villarreal are 'close' to closing a deal to sign goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen.
The Blues' initial offer of around £17m (€20m) was rejected by the Spanish club, but Chelsea have returned with an improved bid, which Nick Purewal of the Evening Standard believed to be closer to £20m.
Romano believes that negotiations are in the final phase, so they should conclude soon, with Jörgensen has already agreed contract terms for his move to Stamford Bridge.
Since Clearlake Capital took over Chelsea, with Todd Boehly, Behdad Eghbali and José E. Feliciano at the helm, more than £1bn has been spent on new players in just two years, and the impending arrival of Jörgensen will take this summer's spending to close to £100m – and counting.
Omari Kellyman (£19m), Tosin Adarabioyo (free), Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (£30m), Renato Veiga (£11.8m), Caleb Wiley (£8.5m) and Marc Guiu (£6m) have all already arrived, meaning the Blues currently have around 50 first-team players in their ranks but show no signs of slowing down.
Who is Filip Jörgensen?
Filip Jörgensen is a 22-year-old goalkeeper who, after spells at numerous youth clubs including Malmö and Mallorca, has spent his entire senior career at Villarreal.
His debut came in a Copa del Rey tie against lower-division Atlético Sanluqueño in December 2021, before having to wait more than a year for his first La Liga appearance, against Rayo Vallecano in January last year.
In total, he has played 44 games for the Yellow Submarine, starting 36 La Liga games last season, displacing veteran Pepe Reina, who played in cup competitions.
Jörgensen made the most saves of any goalkeeper in La Liga last season (143), 22 more than anyone else, which also put him first in expected goals after a shot, which measures the difficulty of the saves he had to make.
Liam Twomey and Mario Cortegana of Athletic Olympique Marseille were also reported to be interested in Jörgensen, but he has been determined to move to west London since being sent off.
It is not just at club level where Jörgensen has a big decision to make; he has represented Sweden and Denmark at youth level, having been born in Lomma to a Danish father and Swedish mother, and is currently Denmark's U21 first-choice goalkeeper, with the DBU believing he could be Kasper Schmeichel's heir apparent.
Who will be Chelsea's number one next season?
Even before Jörgensen joins, Chelsea already have six first-team goalkeepers in their squad: Robert Sánchez, Đorđe Petrović, Marcus Bettinelli, Lucas Bergström, Eddie Beach and Kepa Arrizabalaga, who has returned after a loan spell at real Madrid.
The proposal to sign Kepa for Al-Ittihad of Saudi Arabia has failed As reported by Soham Mukherjee in Goalbut it still seems very likely that he will leave this summer.
Last season, Sánchez made 21 appearances for Chelsea while Petrović played 31 times, with the latter finishing last season as first choice.
However, new boss Enzo Maresca reportedly favours the Spaniard, who started his first pre-season friendly of the summer on Wednesday, a 2-2 draw with Wrexham in the San Francisco Bay Area, while Petrović remained at Cobham due to a minor injury.
At most clubs, if they spend £20m on a new goalkeeper, it would be safe to assume he'll come in as number one, but with Chelsea you never know.
