After what seems like weeks of rumours, Chelsea Football Club have finally confirmed the signing of Radamel Falcao on loan from Monaco. The striker has signed a year long deal to play for the Blues, with the London club having an option to buy him at the end of the year.
The Colombian hit man spent the 2014-2015 season on loan at Manchester United who also had the opportunity to sign him permanently, but he under-whelmed during his time at Old Trafford, scoring just 4 goals in 29 appareances.
As part of the deal taking Falcao to Chelsea their 20 year old Croatian midfielder Mario Pasalic headed in the other direction, joining Monaco for a year long loan.
Falcao was one of the most prolific strikers in the world before a knee injury curtailed his career in January of 2014. It meant he missed out on Colombia’s trip to the World Cup in the same year, and he still hasn’t managed to break back in to the international side with any degree of regularity.
He scored 72 goals over 2 seasons for FC Porto and repeated the feat when he left them in 2011 to join Atletico Madrid, netting 70 goals for the Spanish club. That led Monaco to sign him for £50 million in the summer of 2013.
Mourinho has always been a fan of the striker and declared last month that the Falcao everyone saw at Manchester United was not the real Falcao. It is hoped that, with the loss of Didier Drogba and the fact that Loic Remy hasn’t settled in well at Stamford Bridge, Falcao can provide a solid back up for Diego Costa.
Costa impressed during his debut season with Chelsea, scoring 21 goals in 34 appearances in all competitions and helping to fire the London club to the Premier League title. Yet he only made 26 appearances for the Blues, having suffered from injury himself over the course of the season. It is now hoped that Falcao can get over his own injury nightmare and return to the prolific form that saw him earn that move to Monaco all that time ago.
The player himself said, “I am very happy to be joining Chelsea. I can’t wait to start training, to help with our aim of retaining the league title and being successful in Europe”. He will see some familiar faces in the dressing room at Stamford Bridge, having previously played with Thibaut Courtois, Filipe Luis and Diego Costa at Atletico Madrid.
Mourinho will be delighted with the signing, and whilst Louis Van Gaal felt like it was too much of a gamble to pay a huge price for a player on massive wages who didn’t do an awful lot last term, if the self-proclaimed Special One can get him firing on all cylinders again then it might prove to be an astute gamble from the Portuguese manager.