Summary
Chelsea are "moving concretely towards" signing the French striker and wonderkid Elye Wahi after his breakout season for Ligue 1 side Montpellier, claims journalist Rudy Galetti.
Is Elye Wahi joining Chelsea this summer?
After selling enough talent to create an entire starting eleven of Premier League quality players over the last month or so, Chelsea look to have finally turned their focus to signings and bringing new faces to the club this summer.
They have already welcomed a few new names to Stamford Bridge thus far, with Nicolas Jackson joining from Villarreal, Diego Moreira from Benfica and Christopher Nkuku from RB Leipzig, who had agreed a deal to join the club earlier in the year but couldn't be officially announced until the season's conclusion.
Even with these attacking additions, the Pensioners are looking to add at least one more number nine to the squad before the new campaign gets underway.
The club were initially interested in signing Juventus' Serbian forward Dusan Vlahovic, but with the news that Paris Saint-Germain have agreed personal terms with the forward, they have instead turned their attention to Montpellier's 20-year-old striker, Wahi.
According to transfers expert Fabrizio Romano, Chelsea are now "advancing in talks" with the Ligue 1 outfit over the youngster's move, with plans to loan him out in the first year of his contract to get him more experience of first-team football.
The Daily Mail have also reported that the Blues are closing in on a deal for the player but that Serie A giants Inter Milan are also interested in bringing the young star to the San Siro next season, so the West Londoners better get a move on if they want to seal this deal.
What has Rudy Galetti said about Chelsea's striker search?
Galetti explained that the Blues were stepping up their striker search and that the Montpellier man was indeed a player they were looking at as one of the potential options.
Speaking to GIVEMESPORT, he said: "Chelsea have started to explore alternatives, and now Wahi is gaining a position on their strikers list.
"The Montpellier player could leave for around €35m (£30m) and Chelsea are moving concretely towards him. It cannot be excluded that the player could also go on loan somewhere."
How good is Elye Wahi?
There is a reason so many top clubs are circling the 20-year-old striker, and that's because he had an outstanding breakout year with Montpellier last season, only being slightly overshadowed for those outside of France by the performances of fellow youngster Folarin Balogun.
In his 33 league games for La Paillade last year, the 6 foot forward scored 19 goals and provided five assists, giving him a goal contribution every 1.3 games, seeing him earn an average match rating of 6.87, per WhoScored.
Although impressive for his age group, his underlying numbers aren't quite as good as you might expect given his output and could suggest an element of good fortune last season.
The counterargument to that is that he is just an incredibly clinical striker, which could undoubtedly be the case; it will just take another season or two to see which it is.
According to FBref, who compare players in a similar position across Europe's top five leagues, the dynamic forward sits in the top 7% for non-penalty goals, the top 23% for progressive carries, the top 30% for assists, the top 31% for progressive passes received, the top 35% for successful take-ons, and the top 36% for non-penalty expected goal, all per 90.
He's been a player that scouts have been aware of for some time, with Antonio Mango saying in 2022:
"He's a superstar, remember the name."
Should Chelsea decide to sign Wahi, it could be a decision that pays dividends in years to come, but it might be too soon to call it yet.