This time, they’ve reportedly paid £3.5m for 16 year-old Serbian Slobodan Rajkovic, who was reported back in October as being trailed by the likes of Barcelona, Juventus, Marseille, AC Milan and Arsenal, where he spent a summer training with the rest of Arsene Wenger’s army of footballing children. The fee is a world record amount for a player under the age of 18.
“OFK and Chelsea have reached an agreement for Rajkovic,” said Belgrade general director Vladimir Bulatovic.
“He will stay with us until the end of the 2006-07 season and then he will join Chelsea.”
As expected, Roman’s cash has won out again and Chelsea have pipped both clubs in snapping up the highly rated defender for a price that was no doubt double or triple what anyone else was willing to pay.