Lyon pretty much decided they wanted to sign Bertrand Traore before the end of last season, after they saw the Chelsea owned player impress for loan club Ajax in the Europa League.
Since then it’s been a question of how much, and French newspaper L’Equipe believe a fee has been agreed in the region of €19m.
Chelsea picked the player up in 2009 so apart from training compensation due to Auxerre, the whole transfer fee will be ending up at Stamford Bridge, and is yet another example of how the club are making money from their young signings.
Traore, like many others, moved from Chelsea to Vitesse on loan and he did enough there to catch Ajax’s eye. That turned into another good loan and gave Chelsea the opportunity to cash in on the 21 year old this summer.
Officially Chelsea won’t have a buyback clause, as that’s not allowed in French football, but private agreements have been drawn up in the past.
The ability to enforce such agreements isn’t watertight, but there’s no claim from L’Equipe that such an agreement even exists on this deal.
Negotiations have been going on for ‘several weeks’, report L’Equipe, and Traore is believed to be signing a five year contract.
