Chelsea close in on Falcao swoop after opening talks over €60m January move

Club chiefs, acting on the instruction of owner Roman Abramovich, have made it clear to Falcao that they want to activate the release clause in his Atletico Madrid contract.

Goal.com understands that the Colombian striker has responded to the interest by telling Chelsea that he wants to move to Stamford Bridge in the winter window.

Despite competing enquiries in the 26-year-old from Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain, Falcao is now destined for a switch to Stamford Bridge at the turn of the year.


The European champions have made Falcao a contract offer and it is believed that personal terms have already been agreed on a deal that is likely to make the striker one of the highest paid players in Premier League history.

Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo regards the Fifa Ballon d’Or contender as an upgrade on Fernando Torres, who has had a mixed start to the season despite scoring seven goals in 18 matches, each of them starts. The future of Torres’ understudy Daniel Sturridge is also in considerable doubt despite his presence in the England squad that plays Sweden on Wednesday night.

Only Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have scored more than Falcao’s 10 La Liga goals this season, a record the Colombia enhanced with a hat-trick against Chelsea in Atletico’s 4-1 Super Cup win in August.

Falcao has the pedigree and star quality which Chelsea thought they had acquired with the £50m purchase of Torres in January 2010 but the Spaniard is now likely to be put up for sale to help fund the purchase of the player earmarked to be his replacement.

Atletico are desperate to keep Falcao but will have no option if a club activates the buyout clause for a player who cost €45m when he joined from Porto in 2011.

After posting an annual profit for the first time in Abramovich’s nine-year reign, Chelsea are confident that signing Falcao would not affect the club’s chances of meeting Uefa’s financial fair play regulations.

City’s chances of landing the former River Plate front man are receding, even though Roberto Mancini wants to take him to the Etihad Stadium.

Since moving from South America to Europe in 2009, Falcao has scored 121 goals in 147 matches for Porto and Atletico.

Chelsea wanna ruin another striker?

stopped reading after "Goal com" ..

i dont think he will move in january . wont benefit atletico at all, plus chelsea wont be able to play him in the cl since he is cup tied

Torres' heir

There is some truth to it tho..Falcao would be superb for Chelsea.

Falcao is a wet dream for us.

I hope it comes true.

What would happen to Torres? Hasnt Torres been in good form since the end of last season?

Torres has been average imo. Why does he need to be providing assists when there's Hazard, Mata and Oscar behind him?

Falcao would make Chelsea's attack better.

them LOLz when they sign him and he flops

A swap move would be interesting

Hopefully becomes a torres 2.0 for them.

Apparently, it would cost Chelsea €60m.

Financial Fair Play.

Sturridge

Dutti wrote:A swap move would be interesting

Not for Atletico it wouldnt lol

The Franchise wrote:

Dutti wrote:A swap move would be interesting

Not for Atletico it wouldnt lol

Torres + the 60 million anyway lol.

Salary Dump.

I would love to see him at Atletico

Le Samourai wrote:

The Franchise wrote:

Dutti wrote:A swap move would be interesting

Not for Atletico it wouldnt lol

Torres + the 60 million anyway lol.

Salary Dump.

I would love to see him at Atletico

If im Atletico, the wages alone are a reason not to have him for a throw in. He is that bad.

If you are forced to sell, sell and use the money on a able replacement. Not old war horse with broken leg.

Torres would be a different player back in the red, white and blue colours in my opinion.

He's nowhere near 06-09 Torres but he's still a solid player & I'm sure he would reduce his wages to play for his boyhood club again.

Stop hatin'

Btw did you see Jeremy Lin's airball yesterday?

Kid has zero confidence at the moment.

He's ridiculously marketable in Spain , it's worth a shot If I'm Atletico. There could be a lovely story in there...who knows he may even take a reduced wage.
I'd do it.

The wages will be offset by his marketability and he's still a serviceable player just not a out and out centre forward.

Him and Adrian interchanging between he right and the centre might not be entirely bad.

I see the Rockets stopped letting Lin bring the ball up the floor

I dont think Atletico would take this 'emotional' sort of decision to bring Torres back infact i see them being ambitious instead..Even though i believe they might come out unsuccessful,i think they'll try to lure someone like Cavani to Madrid when and once Falcao is eventually sold imo. They've never been afraid of spending big and wouldnt be surprised if they do it again after his sale.

Surag wrote:I dont think Atletico would take this 'emotional' sort of decision to bring Torres back infact i see them being ambitious instead..Even though i believe they might come out unsuccessful,i think they'll try to lure someone like Cavani to Madrid when and once Falcao is eventually sold imo.

They don't have the money.

They would be smart to take the Porto approach rather than waste money on another expensive striker. They got lucky with Falcao, this type of investment isn't the sort of thing a club walking on glass should be doing.

But then again if you feel that they should take the "smart" Porto approach from now on,bringing back Torres isnt a great way to start is it ?Although i agree with you though, they should be taking that approach.

Le Samourai wrote:He's ridiculously marketable in Spain , it's worth a shot If I'm Atletico. There could be a lovely story in there...who knows he may even take a reduced wage.
I'd do it.

The wages will be offset by his marketability and he's still a serviceable player just not a out and out centre forward.

Him and Adrian interchanging between he right and the centre might not be entirely bad.

Agree entirely.

It's a win-win for both clubs.

Chelsea fans who blame Torres for everything get a new shiny toy to play with and Atleti get the cash to pay off their debt plus a serviceable & former star striker in replacement.

I see the Rockets stopped letting Lin bring the ball up the floor

His usage rate is ridiculously low so far this season especially for the starting point guard. They're basically setting the kid up to fail at this point, he just isn't a spot up shooter.

He's averaging like 6 shots a game. Half of them are 3 pointers.