Chelsea have completed the signing of Enzo Fernandez from Benfica for a club-record fee of £106.7million.
After an intensive day of negotiations between the two clubs – led on the Chelsea side by co-controlling owner Behdad Eghbal from London – a deal was struck on transfer deadline day that has resulted in Fernandez becoming the most expensive player in the club's history.
The 22-year-old's signing eclipses the fee Chelsea paid to Inter Milan for Romelu Lukaku (£97.5million) and Fernandez's transfer is also a British transfer record. The highest fee previously paid was the £100m deal that took Jack Grealish from Aston Villa to Manchester City.
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Fernandez is understood to have agreed on an eight-and-a-half-year contract at Stamford Bridge and will fly to the United Kingdom tomorrow. Chelsea will pay the £106.7m fee across six instalments, the first of which be around £30m.
Benfica have confirmed the deal in a statement to the Portuguese stock exchange. It reads: "Sport Lisboa e Benfica - Futebol, SAD informs that it has reached an agreement with Chelsea FC for the disposal of all the rights of the player Enzo Fernández, for an amount of €121,000,000 (one hundred and twenty-one million euros).
"It is further informed that Chelsea FC will have the right to retain the 3.78% solidarity mechanism for subsequent distribution to the clubs that participated in the player's formation. In addition, Benfica SAD will have charges for intermediation services of 6.56% of the value of the sale deducted from the amount of solidarity and will also have to deliver to River Plate the amount corresponding to 25% of the transfer value deducted from the amounts of solidarity and intermediation services."
Fernandez has enjoyed a breakout season in European football after joining Benfica from River Plate in the summer and starring in Argentina's route to becoming World Cup champions.
Fernandez has recorded four goals and seven assists across 29 appearances for Benfica this term in addition to playing every minute for Argentina in the knockout stages of the World Cup, having only made his international debut in September 2022.
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