July 17, (THEWILL) – Serie A side AC Milan have completed the signing of Olivier Giroud from Chelsea.
THEWILL had reported earlier that a deal is in the works to finalise the transfer of the Frenchman with an end-of-the-week schedule for a medical, the last step in the checklist to wrap up the deal.
Now, Giroud has signed a two-year contract with the Rossoneri after they met the modest release clause in his contract, which was a smart move by Stamford Bridge that triggered a one-year extension for Giroud last season, which precluded a free transfer from happening but made a buy easy.
THEWILL reported that a move was considered inevitable after Chelsea’s UEFA Champions League-winning manager Thomas Tuchel was disinclined to featuring Giroud as often as his skills deserve.
The lack of playing time for the 34-year-old striker, even while he gained a reputation for scoring vital goals in his rare outings including in the run to winning the UCL, made this move necessary. From just two matches he started out of the eight games of his UCL appearances last season, Giroud was able to produce an encouraging six goals.
The turn of fortune for Giroud included a remarkable four-goal haul in Chelsea’s 4-0 win away to Sevilla, which made him the oldest player (34 years, 63 days) to score a hat-trick in the Champions League/European Cup since Ferenc Puskas (38y, 173d) for Real Madrid in 1965.
Such a display ought to have given him the opportunity to feature now but Tuchel thought otherwise and still won the trophy nonetheless.
It was enough for Giroud to justify a switch to Italy and was at the club grounds of Milan for the medicals before the move was finalised. It is a transfer decision that will fetch Chelsea about £2m.
The Frenchman may not have seen the playing time he deserved, but as a part of the winning team of the UCL, Giroud heads to Milan as a European champion from the past campaign. There he hopes to see a resurgence similar to his new team-mate Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
This is the second transfer happening in this window from London to Milan. As THEWILL reported exactly a month ago, Thursday June 17, Fikayo Tomori sealed a move to Serie A after his loan move was made permanent, which was another plus for Milan.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
