In recent years, we have seen Chelsea sign plenty of French players. Unfortunately, a lot of those moves have not gone according to expectations. Malo Gusto has been the biggest success out of them, and by quite some margin. Wesley Fofana does well when fit, but his injury record has been abysmal. The same can be said about Benoit Badiashile. And Axel Disasi is out of Enzo Maresca's plans, and expected to leave in January.
All of those are defensive players though. Further up the pitch, they do not have any French players at the moment. That could be about to change in the near future.
Now, it looks like a 17-year-old French forward has caught the attention of Chelsea. In fact, they have already seen a bid rejected for him.
As reported by L'Equipe (via Get French Football News), Chelsea have seen an €8m bid for Djylian N’Guessan rejected by Saint-Étienne. Arsenal and Brentford are also interested in the player and a move during the January transfer window is on the cards.
Chelsea make €8 million transfer bid for French forward
N’Guessan is still just 17 years of age but he has already made a handful of appearances for his club at the senior level. He has also represented France at multiple youth international levels and his record is fantastic.
For France U16, he has scored 12 goals in 14 games. For the U17 side, he has managed to score 11 times in as many appearances.
So, it is pretty clear that he is an excellent player at the youth level. Now, it remains to be seen if he is successful in making the jump to the senior ranks and have as big of an impact there as well.
Even if Chelsea did end up signing N’Guessan, one would imagine that he would not be part of first-team plans from the off. On the contrary, it is likely that he will spend time at Strasbourg first before a decision is made on his long-term future.