Chelsea have agreed a British record 121m euro (£107m) deal for Benfica’s Argentine midfielder Enzo Fernandez.
The deal eclipses the £100 million that Manchester City paid for Jack Grealish in 2021.
In a statement, Benfica claimed to have “reached an agreement with Chelsea FC for the sale of all the rights of the footballer Enzo Fernandez.”
During Argentina’s World Cup victory in Qatar, Fernandez, who just recently joined Benfica for an alleged £10 million, was named the tournament’s young player.
According to the transfer website Transfermarkt, the 22-year-old’s addition brings Chelsea’s January spending to £288 million.
That brings their total expenditure under new American owner Todd Boehly to more than £550m on 17 new players. That comes after an expense of about £270m in the summer, a record for a British club in the summer window.
The purchase of Fernandez ranks sixth overall in terms of price, equaling the 120 million euros Barcelona paid for France striker Antoine Griezmann in 2019.
Fernandez has four goals in 29 games for the Primeira Liga team since being acquired by Benfica from Argentine club River Plate.
He scored one goal during the World Cup, which came in Argentina’s 2-0 victory over Mexico in the group stage.
Benfica accused Chelsea of attempting to unsettle the player earlier in January, and the Portuguese team’s manager Roger Schmidt deemed their chase “closed.”
Chelsea have signed Noni Madueke, Mykhailo Mudryk, David Datro Fofana, Andrey Santos, Benoit Badiashile and Malo Gusto on permanent deals in January.
They have also brought in Joao Felix on loan from Atletico Madrid.
The Blues are 10th in the Premier League, 10 points adrift of the competition’s Champions League places after 20 matches.
The club was bought for £4.25bn by a consortium led by American investor Todd Boehly last May, after previous owner Roman Abramovich was sanctioned over his links to Russian president Vladimir Putin.