- Club president reveals Real Madrid have held talks with Italian side regarding forward
- Player has been in red hot form these past 18 months
- Chelsea reportedly failed with summer move for player
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Chelsea have appeared to have fallen behind Real Madrid in the race to sign Torino forward Andrea Belotti, after the Italian side’s club president Urbano Cairo admitted that Zinedine Zidane’s side have held talks with himself over the striker.
This is reported by the Sun, who say that Antonio Conte’s side were interested in Belotti and failed with a move for the player this past transfer window, and following this news and the fact that it’s yet to be reported whether Chelsea have had talks about Belotti since the summer, it seems as if the Spanish giants could have moved ahead of the Blues in the race for the player.
Speaking about their discussion over the player, Cairo said “I was eating dinner with Real Madrid president Florentino Perez and we were talking about contracts of players with huge release clauses and I mentioned Belotti.
Cairo then added “As soon as he heard of the clause for Belotti, who he didn’t know, it pricked his ears.”
Ever since the start of last season, Torino sensation Belotti has been nothing short of world class.
In 35 league games for the Turin-based side last season, the 23-year-old managed to scored 26 and assist eight, meaning he almost managed to directly contribute to one goal a game.
Overall, Belotti has done well for Sinsa Mihajlovic’s side, with the player having scored 45 and assisted 15 for the club since his move from Palermo in 2015.
For Italy, the forward has managed to impress a fair few fans with his performances. In 13 games for the Azzurri, the striker has scored four times, a record that shouldn’t be sniffed considering the player’s age.
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Belotti’s ability to use not just his feet, but also his head, has seen some label the Italian as one of the best striker’s in Europe, and understandably so.
Should Chelsea miss out on signing Belotti, it’ll be interesting to see who the Blues target next, as their apparent search for another forward goes on.