Chelsea are considering using Michy Batshuayi as a bait to sign Borussia Dortmund’s highly-rated winger Christian Pulisic, according to reports. Since his breakthrough 2015-16 season at Dortmund, Pulisic has gone from strength to strength and at just 19 years of age, has been tracked by some of Europe’s top elites.
The USA international has been heavily linked with Premier League heavyweights Liverpool and Manchester United but Chelsea are the latest club to have shown an interest in the player. The Blues have tracked the 19-year-old’s progress over the past year and are keen to bring him to Stamford Bridge before the World Cup starts in the summer, report the Daily Mail.
The £88m-rated Pulisic already has 20 caps for the USA and has become the face of the national team in such a short span. However, he won’t be playing in the World Cup as the USA failed to qualify for the event, for the first time since 1986 after a humiliating 2-1 defeat to Trinidad & Tobago in Couva in October last year.
But as things stand, Dortmund are reluctant to lose Pulisic, who, just like his exemplary skills, offers huge market potential as well. However, the report adds that they could be tempted to strike a deal with Chelsea if Batshuayi is included in it.
Batshuayi joined Dortmund on loan last month and has become an instant fan favourite at the Signal Iduna Park, netting 5 goals in 3 games, including a match-winning brace against Atalanta in the Europa League. The big Belgian was deemed surplus to requirements at Stamford Bridge and Antonio Conte allowed him to make a temporary move to Dortmund last month after agreeing to sign Olivier Giroud from Arsenal.
The German club, after watching Batshuayi’s exploits, want to make his move permanent in order to replace Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who joined Arsenal in the winter transfer window. It is reported Dortmund have already started making plans to make Batshuayi’s move permanent and Chelsea certainly could take full advantage of that.
Conte hardly trusted Batshuayi despite the 24-year-old making high impact cameos off the bench, scoring important goals for the Blues.
Regardless of the former Marseille hit-man thriving at Signal Iduna Park, the Chelsea manager would be ready to use him as a bait to acquire the services of the immensely talented Pulisic from Dortmund in the summer.