Achraf Hakimi’s agent Alejandro Camano confirmed that Chelsea were involved in the transfer race for the defender prior to his client’s Paris Saint-Germain move.
The 22-year-old has joined the Ligue 1 side from Inter Milan for a reported €60million (£51.3m) initial fee plus up to €11m in add-ons (The Guardian).
According to an earlier report from The Athletic’s Liam Twomey, Chelsea had already been monitoring the wing-back long before it was clear that Inter might have to sell him this summer.
However, since a new right-back is certainly far from being a priority for Chelsea this summer, there were questions about whether they really made any concrete move to sign Hakimi.
The Morocco international’s agent Camano has now confirmed that Chelsea made a failed attempt to sign his client.
“Chelsea also bid for Achraf,” the agent told Onda Cero Radio’s El Transistor programme (via Marca).
“The fact that he left [previous] Champions League champions [Real Madrid] might have deterred him [from joining Chelsea].”
Chronicle view
Hakimi was part of Real Madrid’s winning squad that won the Champions League in 2017/18.
The competition for the left-back position at Real Madrid, however, meant he had to leave on loan to Borussia Dortmund.
He eventually joined Inter last summer after a brilliant loan season in Germany, likely due to a lack of starting role guarantee at Real Madrid.
To be fair, despite Thomas Tuchel’s 3-4-3 system, Hakimi would likely still have to compete with Reece James and even Cesar Azpilicueta if he had joined Chelsea.
In comparison, he is pretty much going to be a guaranteed starter at PSG since Alessandro Florenzi has now returned to his parent club Roma.
Although, cynics would argue that Hakimi’s decision likely had more to do with the €10m-a-year including bonuses that PSG reportedly offered him (La Repubblica) than anything else.
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