Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger has reached a verbal agreement over a four-year contract to join Real Madrid this summer as a free agent.
The 29-year-old is out of contract this summer and has rejected multiple offers of a new deal from Chelsea, the last understood to have reached in excess of £200,000-a-week.
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Thomas Tuchel confirmed on Sky Sports the German defenders exit after Chelsea’s last minute 1-0 victory over West Ham on Sunday:
“Toni, the media is on it. The situation is that he wants to leave the club. He informed me some days ago in a personal talk, and we gave everything over many months (to re-sign him).“
Tuchel went to confirm Chelsea’s current sanctions are affecting their ability to negotiate: “We enter into a situation where we couldn’t fight anymore because of the sanctions, and Toni has confirmed he will leave the club”.
Chelsea’s on-going sanctions, and its drawn-out sale following the exit of owner Roman Abramovich will continue to hamper their ability to negotiate moving forward. Under a special operational licence granted to the club, Chelsea cannot agree any fresh contracts with players until the sale is finalised. This window of opportunity for interested clubs is also expected to see further exits, with Azpilicueta and Christensen rumoured to have already signed pre-agreements with Madrid rivals Barcelona.
Real Madrid is acquiring a defender in his prime, with defender leaving the Premier League recognised as one of the Europe’s best centre halves.
Blessed with blistering pace and a towering 1.9 m frame, Antonio Rudiger is the epitome of a modern-day centre back. Clocking an impressive 36.7 km/h sprint speed against Brighton this season makes Rudiger not only the quickest defender in the Premiership, but the quickest player in the league for 2022. Outperforming the likes of Adama Traore, Mane and Salah.
