CHELSEA owner Todd Boehly is looking to Saudi Arabia to help solve the clubs FFP woes as he looks to offload a sixth player to the Middle East.
Midfielder N’Golo Kante, a £29m signing from leicester in 2016, is departing Stamford Bridge when his contract expires at the end of this month for the Middle East.
Todd Boehly’s Saudi connections could help ease Chelsea’s FFP issues
The American recently paid a visit to the Middle East and a series of transfers could now be triggered
The 32-year-old French ace has penned a mega £1.7m-a-week deal – SIX TIMES what he earns in West London – with Al-Ittihad.
We have also revealed how outcast striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, 32, is in talks to join one of the four Saudi Pro League clubs owned by the Public Investment Fund.
He cost £10m from Barcelona last August.
Senegal defender Kalidou Koulibaly, a £34m arrival from Napoli last summer, is also being offered an escape from Chelsea by the Saudis.
Striker Romelu Lukaku, who was loaned to Inter Milan last term, has also been offered an incredible £21m-a-year deal by Al-Hilal.
He cost a whopping £97.5m from Inter two years ago.
And it emerged yesterday that winger Hakim Ziyech, who was a £38m arrival from Ajax in 2020, is being targeted by Al-Nassr to link up in attack with Cristiano Ronaldo.
Goal has now claimed that £22m goalkeeper Edouard Mendy could join a Saudi Pro League club with Al-Ahli believed to be in contact with his agent.
Boehly has spent over £600MILLION on new players since buying the club from Roman Abramovich at the start of the season.
He now must balance the books as well as reduce the bloated dressing room of 30-plus players.
Chelsea must start selling by June 30 to keep in line with FFP rules, even though they will not be in European competition next season.
And Boehly’s relationship with Saudi Arabia could prove to be a fruitful one for the club.
According to CBS Sports, those links between PIF and Boehly could help push through several summer transfer deals.
The American was spotted recently in the Middle East country with the president of Pro League club Al-Hilal, who are now owned by the country’s Public Investment Fund.
It has emerged previously that PIF, Saudi’s sovereign wealth fund and who have purchased fellow Premier league club Newcastle, were huge investors in Chelsea’s majority shareholder Clearlake Capital,
PIF are also believed to have billions of pounds of assets managed by Clearlake, the American-based private equity firm who purchased a 60 per cent stake in Chelsea during the takeover.
Journalist Ben Jacobs has now offered an update on the situation by tweeting: “Clearlake and PIF have an excellent relationship. And the latter are driving many high-profile moves to Saudi on behalf of Al-Nassr, Al-Hilal, Al-Ittihad, and Al-Ahli.”
He then added that Chelsea “see an opportunity to offload some players to Saudi” and that “PIF have multiple Chelsea players on their radar”.
Fresh reports have also claimed that the Saudi government’s head of football is currently in London to negotiate with Chelsea over several moves for their unwanted players.
And a number of club chiefs are “also present to negotiate with players” with meetings “scheduled with their agent next week” in the capital.
Boehly has previously teamed up with PIF in investment projects away from football. He is the co-founder of Cain International alongside fellow Chelsea director Jonathan Goldstein.
And it was recently announced that Cain International and PIF had invested nearly £750m into Aman Group, a company that owns luxury hotels and apartments.
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