OFFICIAL: Chelsea announce signing of exceptional teenage defender | OneFootball

Chelsea have just now confirmed the signing of Mamadou Sarr on their official website.

This completes a move that was agreed back in January, with the Blues signing up the talented young central defender for around €14m on an 8 year contract.

Short and long term plans for Sarr

Ben Jacobs Tweets about Mamadou Sarr signing.

Still just 19, Sarr had an excellent breakout season with Strasbourg last year, helping Liam Rosenior’s team finish in the European places.

He made 28 appearances in all competitions and impressed enough that Chelsea felt they needed to swoop to pick him up now rather than leave him for another year at their affiliate.

While a loan elsewhere still feels like a possibility, if the club are able to sell some of other defenders off Sarr should be sticking around as a 4th or 5th choice central defender at Chelsea this season.

He will get the chance to impress right away – the well connected Ben Jacobs’ Tweet on the subject says that the plan is for Sarr to be part of the Club World Cup squad at the very least.

Sarr marks the start of a “third way” between Chelsea and Strasbourg

So far, the Chelsea – Strasbourg linkup has worked successfully in two ways. One is Chelsea sending their young players like Andrey Santos and Djordje Petrovic there to learn and develop and help the French side in Ligue 1.

The other way is Chelsea selling players from their own first team who might not make the grade at Stamford Bridge, but can help the Alsatians, like Diego Moreira last summer.

This transfer represents the start of a new mode of interaction between the two – players that Strasbourg have scouted and signed themselves (using some of the BlueCo cash) coming to Chelsea after showing exceptional promise in the sister club.