London: Chelsea have accepted a 60 million pounds (Dh279.45 million) offer from the club’s former manager, Andre Villas-Boas, to take midfielder Oscar to China next month.
Oscar has told his Chelsea teammates that he is moving to China, where he will link up with Villas-Boas at Shanghai SIPG, having fallen out of favour at Stamford Bridge under head coach Antonio Conte.
Jiangsu Suning, who made an offer to sign Oscar last summer, and Guangzhou Evergrande, managed by Luiz Felipe Scolari, also showed an interest but Shanghai are now completing the formalities for the 25-year-old. Chelsea could not refuse 60 million pounds for Oscar, who they signed from Brazilian club Internacional for 25 million pounds in 2012, and he becomes the most expensive player to leave the club — beating the 50 million pounds the Blues received for David Luiz from Paris St-Germain in 2014.
Villas-Boas already has two Brazilians: Hulk and Elkeson, in his squad. The Portuguese tried to sign Oscar for Tottenham Hotspur before he joined Chelsea and has remained a big fan of the player. This will be the second successive season in which Chelsea have sold one of their Brazilians to China for big money, having recouped over 20 million pounds from Jiangsu Suning for Ramires in January.
Ramires managed to double the salary he was paid at Chelsea by moving to China on a pounds 10 million-a-year-deal and Oscar is expected to earn almost 350,000 pounds a week at Shanghai. Oscar started the first five Premier League games of the season under Conte, but lost his place after the home defeat by Liverpool.
Since Conte’s successful switch in formation, Oscar has started only in the EFL Cup tie against West Ham United, which Chelsea lost. He was not in the squad for last weekend’s victory over West Bromwich Albion due to illness and could well have played his last game for the club. During his four and a half years at Chelsea, Oscar has won the Premier League, Europa League and League Cup, making over 200 appearances.
The prospect of him moving to China increases the likelihood of Cesc Fabregas, who has come back into the reckoning over recent weeks, staying at Stamford Bridge for at least the rest of the season. Asked about Fabregas’s future ahead of the Premier League game against Sunderland, Conte said: “Cesc is an important player for us. He played a key match against Manchester City and played very well. In the last match, he came on did very well during the game.”
