Chelsea decision hands Josko Gvardiol boost to Real Madrid

Josko Gvardiol had a fantastic World Cup campaign and was arguably the best defender at the tournament, as Croatia finished third. After his impressive displays, it should come as no surprise that the RB Leipzig centre-back is being eyed by some of the biggest clubs in Europe and the two who have seemed most interested at this point of time are Real Madrid and Chelsea.

Chelsea have been chasing Gvardiol’s signature for a while and were believed to have tried hard to sign him in the summer as well, but a move just did not end up transpiring as they could not agree a fee with RB Leipzig.

Following his performances at the World Cup though, it is believed that RB Leipzig will be looking for an even bigger transfer fee in order to part ways with Gvardiol and it looks like the Blues have turned their attention elsewhere.

As tweeted out by Fabrizio Romano, a deal for AS Monaco’s Benoit Badiashile is very advanced with Chelsea.

Chelsea decision hands Gvardiol boost to Real Madrid

Badiashile is a very highly rated centre-back as well and even at 21 years of age, he has been a regular member of the AS Monaco starting XI for a long time.

And on top of everything else, he is a very similar profile of player to Gvardiol. Thus, if Chelsea do end up signing the Frenchman then it feels a bit unlikely that they will end up making a move for the Croatian defender in the future as well.

As a result, the potential move for Badiashile could open up the path to signing Gvardiol for Real Madrid but at the same time, the European champions will face their problems in getting a deal over the line as well with the biggest being agreeing a transfer fee with RB Leipzig, who are believed to be looking for a figure north of €100 million to part ways with their star man.