Football League World
·20 July 2023
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·20 July 2023
Exeter City will reportedly receive a bumper financial boost to their coffers following Ethan Ampadu's move to Leeds United, after the switch was confirmed on Tuesday.
The Welsh international, who has over 40 caps for his country, has spent the last three seasons away from Stamford Bridge and suffered the ignominy of three consecutive relegations with Sheffield United, Venezia and Spezia respectively.
The Blues' chop-and-change transfer strategy means that there was always a chance that Ampadu could play under Mauricio Pochettino in the new season, especially with Wesley Fofana being ruled out with an ACL injury - leaving just Benoit Badiashile, Thiago Silva, Trevoh Chalobah and Levi Colwill as their main-choice centre-backs.
However, his sale - which has been reported to be in the region of £7million rising to £10million - has given the Grecians a huge boost in their transfer kitty.
BBC Sport reports that Exeter were entitled to 20 per cent of the profits on Ampadu's next move, which after leaving for Stamford Bridge for a fee of £1.6m in 2017, puts the transfer fee at around £1.1million this time around.
Furthermore, should Ampadu leave Elland Road in the future, they could also be entitled to 20 per cent of the share that Chelsea receive on his future takings, according to the BBC report.
Exeter City president Julian Tagg told the BBC that the club were expecting a huge boost to their coffers as a result - even giving a ballpark figure in the process.
He told BBC Sport: "We haven't got the specifics through but anybody that's even a basic mathematician knows it's going to be in excess of £1m, and we understand we will get the full details later.
"There are further extras in the deal, as there always is in a deal between two clubs, and what we don't know yet is the percentage sell-on, which is significant.
"If it's 5% it's not, but if it's 50% it's huge, but we don't know that detail yet and we will be furnished with that in due course."
The Grecians received £1.8million from Ollie Watkins' sale to Brentford, and upon his £30m move to Aston Villa, they received an extra £4.5million in add-ons as a result of their percentage sell-on fee.
Ampadu's move to Yorkshire now means that his fee stands at over £2.7million, enough to put him second, ahead of third-placed Matt Grimes who moved to Swansea in 2015 for a then-club record fee of £1.75million.
It's a recent influx of money that means that the League One club are very well set for the future - over £7.5million has come into the club in the last six years from two players alone, and that isn't counting other numerous sales including the £1m sale of Joel Randall to Peterborough United, and the joint £1.5million sale of Jordan Storey and Jayden Stockley to Preston in the summer of 2018.
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