Chelsea set to complete the signing of 19-year-old Molde striker

Chelsea set to complete the signing of Molde striker David Datro Fofana

According to Football.London, Chelsea are set to complete their first January transfer with the signing of Molde striker David Datro Fofana for a fee of around £8.6m.

Fofana, whose contract at Molde lasts until December 2024 (Transfermarkt), is now making a switch to Stamford Bridge in the next few weeks.

As per Transfer Expert Fabrizio Romano, personal terms are agreed and the deal will go through in the coming weeks. The 19-year-old was at an Ivory Coast club Abidjan FC before moving to Molde in February 2021.

Exclusive: Chelsea are on the verge of signing David Datro Fofana, here we go soon! There’s full agreement in place with Molde to sign Ivorian striker born in 2002. 🚨🔵 #CFC

Personal terms are still being discussed with player — then deal will be signed for more than €10m fee. pic.twitter.com/LA6u4vZyPc

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) December 15, 2022

Chelsea are having a shortage in their number nine department after the injury picked up by Armando Broja during the friendly against Aston Villa on Sunday. The Albania international is now out for the rest of the season because the ACL injury takes a lot of time and hard work to recover from.

Romano reported that the Blues are in search of a striker in January, and they were doing that irrespective of Broja’s injury. We hope the signature of Fofana is just the start of businesses to be done next month.

The Ivory Coast international has scored 15 goals and assisted five in 24 league appearances for Molde in the current season. He is a striker who can operate on either wing.

With games set to come thick and fast after the resumption of this season, Graham Potter would need multiple options to choose from in the forward line. Incidentally, the two current options for the number nine position – Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Kai Havertz, were in dire form before the World Cup break.

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So, not only the team is short of numbers there, they have out-of-form players too who have failed to pull their weight. Hence, signing Fofana makes sense to add more options. But, the Molde striker is still young, hence adding another player in the January window would be the right way to go.