Chelsea have agreed to pay £11.9 million for 19-year-old French central defender Mamadou Sarr, who currently plays for their partner club, Strasbourg.
The deal, which is set to be completed in the summer, marks the first permanent transfer from Strasbourg to Stamford Bridge, with both clubs owned by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital under the BlueCo umbrella.
Strasbourg will make a £3.4 million profit from the transfer, having signed Sarr from Lyon for £8.5 million just last summer.
The structure of the agreement allows Strasbourg to keep all their current loanees—midfielder Andrey Santos, left-back Caleb Wiley, and goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic—without breaching FIFA’s regulations on loan players.
In addition to Sarr, Chelsea are also set to sign 16-year-old Kazakh striker Dastan Satpaev, who impressed during a recent trial at the club’s Cobham Training Centre. Satpaev will join Chelsea’s academy teams from FC Kairat.
