Daily Times

LONDON: Chelsea announced the signing of Enzo Fernandez from Benfica on Wednesday after days of complex negotiations between the clubs to secure the Argentina midfielder for a British transfer record £106.8 million ($131.46 million). As the deadline day approached its end on Tuesday, it appeared a deal might not be reached but a statement from Benfica confirmed that it had been done shortly before 2300 GMT. Premier League club Chelsea announced the signing on Wednesday 1000 GMT via a video on Twitter, which showed a clip of a clock ticking down, making a reference to race against time to sign the World Cup winner. Benfica’s statement said Chelsea would pay the contract release fee for the 22-year-old, who has signed an eight-and-a-half year deal with the London club. It takes Chelsea’s transfer spending in January alone to close to 300 million pounds and to more than 500 million pounds since last May’s takeover by an investment group led by American Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital. Boehly has sanctioned more spending in this transfer window than the combined total of all clubs in Europe’s other big leagues — the Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1. According to media reports, Chelsea will pay the release fee in several instalments — the number of which became a sticking point for the deal until late on Tuesday. “Sport Lisboa e Benfica — Futebol, SAD informs that it has reached an agreement with Chelsea FC for the sale of all the rights of the player Enzo Fernandez, for an amount of 121,000,000 euros,” a Benfica statement read. Fernandez fee eclipses the £100 million Manchester City paid Aston Villa for England midfielder Jack Grealish in 2021. Fernandez was instrumental in Argentina’s World Cup-winning campaign in Qatar.