Chelsea confirm £23.5m signing on initial seven-year contract

Chelsea have completed the signing of Lesley Ugochukwu on a long-term contract.

The 19-year-old arrives from Stade Rennais after a fee of around £23.5 million was agreed with the Ligue 1 side for his signature, which has seen Ugochukwu pen a seven-year contract, with a club option of a further year.

He becomes Mauricio Pochettino’s fifth first-team signing of the summer after Christopher Nkunku, Nicolas Jackson, Angelo Gabriel and Diego Moreira, with Alex Matos also arriving from Norwich City.

On Ugochukwu’s signing, co-sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley told the official Chelsea website: “We’re delighted Lesley is joining Chelsea. He is an impressive young player who has already made his mark in Ligue 1.

“He has a huge amount of potential and we know he is going to continue to develop and improve.

“We are pleased that he has joined us in the U.S and that he will be able to integrate with the squad quickly.”

Pochettino hinted Ugochukwu could return to France immediately to join RC Strasbourg, who were acquired by Chelsea’s owners this summer, admitting: “My information is he is a player that is from France that maybe they are signing with the idea to send on some loan, using a different club but that information was already in your laptop. There is nothing to say too much.”