Palestra to Chelsea is official: €55m and Inter left beaten

Marco Palestra is officially a Chelsea player: the announcement came on Wednesday, with the Atalanta-owned talent moving to the Premier League for €55 million «plus 5» in bonuses. It is Inter who are left empty-handed, having chased him for weeks and considered the deal all but done before Xabi Alonso’s side jumped the queue.

The white smoke came on Wednesday 1 July. Calciomercato.com announced that «Marco Palestra is officially a new Chelsea player», arriving «from Atalanta for €55 million plus 5» in bonuses. The fee sends the winger — back from a loan season at Cagliari — to the Premier League and closes one of the most closely followed transfer sagas of recent weeks.

It was Chelsea who prevailed, overtaking Inter just when the deal looked set to end in Milan. La Gazzetta dello Sport had reported that «Palestra says yes to Chelsea», with the nerazzurri «caught off guard» and wages of around €6 million a season for the player; Corriere della Sera reconstructed the twist, pointing to «the meeting with his agent» and «the video call with Xabi Alonso», the Blues’ coach, as decisive.

Yet until mid-June the trail seemed to point the other way. Eurosport had revealed a verbal agreement between Inter and Atalanta, while between 21 and 22 June Sky Sport called the deal «on the home straight» and Quotidiano Sportivo had the nerazzurri «one step away». For weeks, as Gazzetta wrote, Palestra himself had preferred Inter to the calls of Manchester City and Newcastle.

The turnaround came at the end of June: on the 24th Calciomercato.com ran its «here we go», reporting a verbal agreement with Atalanta «for a total of more than €55 million». From there to the official announcement was a short step, with Chelsea completing the operation and securing one of the most coveted youngsters produced by Italian football.

The deal was not short of talking points: La Gazzetta dello Sport questioned how Chelsea, «€400 million in the red», could reconcile the signing with Financial Fair Play, while Rivista Undici called it «good news for Palestra, for Atalanta and for Italian football» — with the sole exception, it joked, of Inter. Who, with the young man’s departure settled, have meanwhile shifted their attention to other targets for the flank.

TransferBeat aggregates transfer news citing the original sources. Developing story.