Chelsea eyeing €45m Barcelona player as a winter recruit | OneFootball

Since his arrival at FC Barcelona, the French defender Jules Kounde has been an integral part of the Blaugrana defense. The Frenchman has been essential for the Catalan club both as a center-back and as a right-back in the last two seasons.

He has started this season in good form as well, and naturally, remains one of the highest-rated defenders in Europe. As a result, he is already being linked with one of the biggest clubs in Europe despite it only being a few weeks since the last summer transfer window closed.

According to SPORT, the Premier League side Chelsea is interested in signing Kounde in the upcoming winter transfer window as they are looking to reinforce their defense.

Despite having invested up to €800 million in the last two summer transfer windows, the Blues are still not satisfied with their team. They are particularly having doubts about the fullback and captain Reece James, whose career has been ravaged by injuries.

Thus, Chelsea are looking for reinforcement for the right-back position in January, and Enzo Maresca’s side has Kounde as their priority target. The Barcelona center-back is expected to cost them around €60 million. They also have the Bayer Leverkusen fullback, Jeremie Frimpong, as their secondary option if they fail to land Kounde.

The €45m-rated French defender was already close to joining Chelsea back in 2022. However, he ultimately decided to join Barcelona at that time after Xavi himself convinced him to join his side.

Even now, Kounde wants to stay at Barcelona and has a contract till 2027. Thus the operation might be somewhat complicated for Chelsea. Still, the report further states that the Catalans would not be too averse to a sale if they could earn a significant amount of money for him.

Even if this operation advances, Chelsea can get Kounde only in January. Till then, they will have to trust their academy options to fill in any weak positions in the team.