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Olivier Giroud keen for Chelsea to move for Lyon's Nabil Fekir

Chelsea's Olivier Giroud has revealed that he and Eden Hazard tried to convince Lyon's Nabil Fekir to join the Blues after the Liverpool deal failed.

Nabil Fekir, Lyon midfielder

Bengaluru, August 8: Chelsea striker Olivier Giroud has revealed that he and Eden Hazard talked with French attacker Nabil Fekir and tried to convince him to join Chelsea after the latter's Liverpool deal failed to make progress.

In this June, the 25-year-old Lyon attacking midfielder Nabil Fekir was very close to joining Premier League club Liverpool on a transfer deal worth more than £60 million. Fekir even completed his medical test with the club too but the deal fell through prior to the FIFA World Cup 2018 in Russia.

Fekir, part of France's World Cup winning squad, made six appearances as a substitute and even played a part in the final against Croatia.

Fekir would be welcomed 'with pleasure' at Chelsea - Giroud

France striker Giroud revealed that he spoke with his country teammate about the option of moving to Chelsea when the Liverpool deal failed. While Giroud is unsure about the move as the transfer window will close this Thursday (August 9), he said that they would welcome him in the Blues.

The 31-year-old Chelsea striker told Foot Mercato, “I spoke to him when we were together in the French national team, when his move to Liverpool fell through. Then we discussed Chelsea, and I even think that Eden said a couple of words to him. We would obviously welcome him, he is a super player, but I don’t know if this is something that could happen as the window closes on Thursday.”

Fekir has been with Lyon since the summer of 2013 and has made 153 appearances, scoring 57 goals, 23 of them coming in the previous season. At the end of his second season (2014/15) with Lyon, Fekir won the UNFP Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year award.

Earlier this week, Fekir claimed that he is happy in Lyon, but hasn’t ruled out the possibilities of a transfer.

Fekir said, “As you can see, I am in Lyon. I am very happy here. But the transfer window is still long and everything goes very quickly in football. We don’t know what will happen in the future but I am very happy at Lyon. I feel brilliant in this squad. We have very good players, a great atmosphere. We feel good together and I hope that Lyon will have a very good season.”

Speaking after a friendly between Chelsea and Lyon in London, the French club's head coach Bruno Genesio conceded he was braced for a Fekir exit.

"He wanted to leave at the end of last season, but came back to training yesterday and was happy," he told a news conference. "Who knows?

"There may be opportunities that come up before the end of the window. For now, he is a Lyon player."

Story first published: Wednesday, August 8, 2018, 18:25 [IST]
Other articles published on Aug 8, 2018