Brilliant Brazilian defender ‘ready to make big move’ Chelsea boss Lampard told
Lille president Gerard Lopez believes Gabriel Magalhaes is on track to join a “really big club” amid interest from Chelsea.
We remain one of the favourites to land Lille’s young Brazilian centre-back, who has featured in the Champions League, playing twice against Chelsea in this season’s group stages, and now have been told that the defender is ready to make that big move.
Speaking exclusively to Sky Sports, Lopez said: “It’s true that he would like to go and try something else out. We haven’t taken that decision yet, but he’s received a number of offers. I feel he’s closer to one club than others, but nothing’s done yet so we’ll see.
“I wouldn’t want to say any more as I respect the player too much. The mechanism I have in place, and we saw that work so well with Nico [Nicolas Pepe], is that I have a certain price in mind for a player, and at the end of the day it’s the player’s choice to go and play where he wants to play – that’s the respect that I have for them.
“I feel he is among the top five dominant central defenders in Europe right now. His statistics, which aren’t well covered outside of France, shows that his percentage for winning duels is pretty unheard of in a league that’s extremely physical.
“He’s an absolute machine, so to me, he’s well on his way – if not this year – to potentially a really big club. I’m certain he’s on his way to the Brazilian national team at some point.
“He’s been linked to two clubs in the UK and he’s clearly been linked to other clubs that have either enquired or moved forward with proposals for him. But we’re not in a hurry and we’re not playing right now. The player isn’t on the pitch.”
READ MORE: Chelsea close in on Bundesliga deal as Blues in contact to sign hitman
JUST IN: Frenchman tells Chelsea that he wants to be at club this coming summer
CLICK HERE TO READ ALL THE LATEST CHELSEA NEWS, GOSSIP AND TRANSFER RUMOURS
