Chelsea and Burkina Faso striker Bertrand Traore has completed a permanent move to Lyon after three year stint with the Blues senior team.
According to Goal, the 21-year old forward signed a five years deal worth about £8.8 million with the Ligue side while Chelsea also hold a 15 per cent sell-on clause.
The young star joined Chelsea youth team in 2013 and got promoted to the senior team the following year. He however made his first appearance for the Blues senior team in 2015 and went on to make a total 16 appearances scoring four goals.
With the arrival of Antonio Conte at Stamford Bridge last summer, the Burkina Faso international was loaned out to Ajax for first team football. Conte saw him as surplus to requirement after signing Belgian striker Michy Batshuayi from Marseille.
During his stint at Ajax last season, the highly rated star excelled scoring 13 goals in 35 appearances. He also led his team to Europa Cup final but eventually got defeated by Manchester United.
The goal poacher expressed his delight for the new challenge ahead of him when he said:
“Lyon and I intend to continue to progress, to learn with the coach and with my new team-mates,” Traore told the club’s official website.
“I want to help the club go far. Personally, I have set a goal to seek
stability and, by signing a contract at with OL, cannot ask for better.
“I have time to show everyone what I can do and what I am worth.” The African star however insisted leaving Chelsea was the best option for him after spending most of his career out on loan.
“It was time to land in a more stable project, considering my age and my development, it was the moment for me to leave Chelsea. He continued.
“I could stay and play games, knowing full well that a starting place was never going to come.
“I was trained at the club, I did everything, two seasons ago I even pushed the holders a bit, but we all saw what happened.
“I made a very good preseason and finally I was forced to go on loan, I did not want to repeat the same scenario this season.
“It was time to look for stability in a club where I would play a leading role, where I would be a ‘cadre’ of the team, I think that here I can do everything to be among these sort of people.”