Chelsea are being linked with defender Mohamed Simakan, who currently plays for French top-flight club Strasbourg.
According to Le10 Sport, the Blues have made contact to the Ligue 1 side about the centre-back and registered their interest in trying to sign him.
It is explained that they’ve not yet submitted an offer for him, but he could end up leaving in the January transfer window next month and he’s valued at €15million (£13.4million) by Strasbourg.
The report adds that AC Milan are keen on trying to sign the youngster after showing previous interest in the summer, plus Nice have also made contact in recent weeks about his potential signature.
Simakan is a French defender that is a centre-back by trade, but he’s shown this season that he’s got the versatility to drop in at right-back or as a midfielder if needed.
He’s an unfamiliar name to English audiences, but he’s an upcoming talent that has played 42 first-team games for Strasbourg and is developing in the top tier of French football.
It’s unclear on if Chelsea will step up their interest in him, but there is already a depth of talent that the Blues have on their books which does make this new speculation somewhat odd.
Chelsea maanger Frank Lampard already has centre-halves Thiago Silva, Andreas Christensen, Fikayo Tomori, Kurt Zouma and Antonio Rudiger all at his disposal in the first-team this season.
Additionally, Marc Guehi and Malang Sarr are two young centre-backs that will have aspirations of breaking into the senior squad in the future and surely the club don’t want to have too many exciting young talents in one position.