Chelsea have confirmed that they have completed the signing of Lyon defender Malo Gusto.
The Blues had initially wanted the full-back to move to the club in January, but a compromise has been reached with the French club where he will remain at his current team for the remainder of the season.
Chelsea have had injury issues on both sides of their defence this season with Reece James and Ben Chilwell each spending periods on the sidelines through injury.
To replace the former, Graham Potter has either used Cesar Azpilicueta or Trevoh Chalobah, but neither player possesses the qualities offered by James.
That led Chelsea to enter the market for extra competition with Inter Milan's Denzel Dumfries and Josip Juranovic, who has just left Celtic for Union Berlin, both linked with a switch to Stamford Bridge.
© Reuters
However, it emerged last week that Chelsea had settled on Gusto as their first choice, being left impressed by the 19-year-old's development at Lyon.
The France Under-21 international has made 15 starts in the top flight this campaign, contributing six assists from his 54 appearances in total.
Although Chelsea pushed to bring in Gusto before the end of the month, Lyon were insistent that the prospect would remain in his homeland for the rest of the season.
President Jean-Michel Aulas told L'Equipe earlier this week: "I can confirm that Malo [Gusto], a great hope for Lyon, will stay here at least until the end of the season."
Chelsea's newest: Malo Gusto! 👋 pic.twitter.com/wIQ3LkNR9p
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) January 29, 2023
Three days on from those comments, Gusto is now a Chelsea player, becoming the latest addition to pen a contract until 2030.
While a fee has not been disclosed, transfer expert Fabrizio Romano claims that Chelsea have agreed to pay €30m (£26.3m) fee plus add-ons.
The completion of Gusto's transfer takes Chelsea up to seven incomings for the January window after Benoit Badiashile, Andrey Santos, Noni Madueke, Mykhaylo Mudryk, Joao Felix and David Datro Fofana.
If reports are to be believed, Chelsea will now attempt to sign a new central midfielder, while also looking to reduce their squad numbers before Tuesday's deadline.
Darren Plant
