Nicolas Jackson will join Chelsea from Villarreal for €37m (£31.8m) on an eight-year deal after completing his medical with the club on Sunday.
Jackson scored 12 goals in 26 appearances in La Liga last season and came close to joining Bournemouth in January but failed a medical because of a hamstring problem.
The 22-year-old Senegal striker finished the season by scoring eight goals in as many games, attracting interest from Aston Villa and Everton, but Chelsea have won the race for his signature. They have paid more than Jackson’s release clause in order to get more beneficial payment terms within the structure of the deal.
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Jackson moved to Villarreal from Senegal in 2019. He was sent out on loan to Mirandés a year later to play in the second tier. After impressing for the club’s B team, he was given his La Liga debut in October 2021.
He will become the second striker to move to Chelsea in a short space of time after the arrival of Christopher Nkunku from RB Leipzig for £51m on Tuesday. The new manager, Mauricio Pochettino, made it a priority to bolster his frontline options after Chelsea averaged a goal a game last season in finishing a disappointing 12th and subsequently missing out on European football.
The length of Jackson’s contract is typical of those handed to players under the ownership of Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital as part of the policy of using amortisation to spend large sums on transfer fees while not breaching financial fair play regulations.
As Jackson and Nkunku arrive at Chelsea, plenty of players look about to leave the club, including Kai Havertz, Mateo Kovacic and Mason Mount. Hakim Ziyech and Édouard Mendy are close to joining Saudi Pro League clubs, where they will join N’Golo Kanté, who moved to Al-Ittihad last week. The defender Kalidou Koulibaly completed his move to Al-Hilal on Sunday night after a solitary season with the Blues. Chelsea have agreed a fee with Al-Ahli for Mendy and the goalkeeper is to travel to Saudi Arabia on Monday.