Chelsea
have signed Brighton midfielder Moises Caicedo for a British-record fee of
£115m on an eight-year contract.
Chelsea are understood to be paying an initial £100m, plus £15m in
performance-related add-ons.
There is an option of a further year in Caicedo's contract and Brighton will
have a sell-on clause that has been described as "significant" as part of
the deal.
Half of the add-ons have been described as "quite easily achievable", while
the other half are considered "much harder" to achieve.
Liverpool agreed a £111m deal to sign Caicedo last week but the move fell
through when the 21-year-old informed the club he intended to join Chelsea.
Caicedo had been expected to travel to Liverpool for a medical on Friday
after Jurgen Klopp's side had a bid accepted by Brighton following a
midnight deadline for bids on Thursday.
But the Ecuador international had a change of heart and told Liverpool - who
drew 1-1 at Chelsea in their opening Premier League game of the season on
Sunday - he did not want to join.
Caicedo completed his medical at Chelsea's training ground on Monday.
Co-sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley said: "Moises
possesses a rare midfield skill set and is a player we've been targeting for
some time. We believe he will make a significant impact at Stamford Bridge
this season - and in the years ahead."
Is this why Caicedo rejected Liverpool for
Chelsea?
The £115m fee for Caicedo eclipses the £106.8m Chelsea paid for Enzo
Fernandez when breaking the British-record transfer fee in January. Arsenal
spent £105m on Declan Rice earlier in the summer.
Chelsea want to sign two midfielders this summer and are still pushing to
sign Southampton's Romeo Lavia despite Liverpool agreeing a £60m deal for
the Belgian.
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How much have Chelsea spent?
Chelsea have now splashed a league-topping £285.9m this summer and Caicedo
becomes the club's 10th signing of the window, having also signed
Christopher Nkunku (£52m), Axel Disasi (£38.8m), Nicolas Jackson (£32m),
Robert Sanchez (£25m), Lesley Ugochukwu (£23.1m), Angelo Gabriel, Ishe
Samuels-Smith, Diego Moreira and Alex Matos (all undisclosed).
Last season, the Blues splashed a record-breaking £601.7m across both
transfer windows on new signings and only recouped £61m from player sales -
but the club has balanced the books so far this season.
Mauricio Pochettino's side have cashed in £232.3m in this window, selling
Kai Havertz (£65m), Mason Mount (£60m), Mateo Kovacic (£30m), Christian
Pulisic (£18.8m), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (£18.5m), Kalidou Koulibaly (£17m),
Edouard Mendy (£16m) and Ethan Ampadu (£7m).
As it stands, all those deals place Chelsea ninth in the table for net
spend.
Analysis: How Caicedo turned into £115m
in-demand star
In the wake of his country's World Cup exit last year, when other players
were jetting off to high-end holiday resorts, Caicedo was back in Santo
Domingo, Ecuador, playing in a local tournament on the same dusty pitch he
used as a boy.
In footage which went viral in the country, Caicedo, a rising star in the
Premier League who had just become Ecuador's youngest scorer at a World Cup,
can be seen finding the net again, only this time as a ringer for Caicedos
FC, a team made up of extended family members.
His goal, slotted in at the near post in ramshackle surroundings, helped
Caicedos FC win the tournament and was celebrated with a leap, a fist pump
and a gesture of recognition to the few hundred spectators sitting or
leaning on fences around the pitch.
"This is Moises," Miguel Angel Ramirez, Caicedo's former coach at his
boyhood club Independiente del Valle, tells Sky Sports with a smile. "Going
back to his village, to his family, his friends, playing football, helping
everyone there. He doesn't forget his people..."
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