Talented Club Brugge youngster Charles De Ketelaere has admitted he would likely sign for Chelsea if they tried to purchase him.
With the January transfer market looming ever closer, the rumour mill is operating at high speed once again. In recent times, former player turned Brugge scout Paul Courant said of the 20-year-old striker: "Put Charles at Chelsea tomorrow and he will play immediately. Especially, under that trainer [Thomas Tuchel]."
Now, while addressing that claim, De Ketelaere seemed to suggest he would be open to a transfer Blues came in with an offer.
He told Het Laatste Nieuws (via Sport Witness ): "In soccer, you have to listen to everyone.
"That’s what I’m going to do, too, if I have to make a choice. If tomorrow an absolute top club wants me, I might decide to sign there."
Despite being a fairly young age for a striker, he is no stranger to finding the back of the net. This season alone he has 10 league goals in 27 league appearances.
In total, he has played 98 games for Club Brugge, and with 17 assists too, De Ketelaere has proven he is more than just a goalscorer. No doubt, it is stats like that which have seen him become the subject of all this recent transfer speculation.
While discussing such rumours with Het Laatste Nieuws, he concluded: "Everything is possible. I’ll just let it come to me. Because I don’t live in the future, I live in the now.
"But it’s not that during Real – Barcelona I think: ‘I want to play there later’.
"I don’t put those things in my head and I’m certainly not distracted by them. That’s just the way I am."
Having spent nearly £100million on Romelu Lukaku in the summer, Chelsea may have felt they'd done enough to sort that position for the next few transfer windows.
But the Belgian has just three Premier League goals after missing a number of games through injury, and with Timo Werner struggling to impress on a consistent basis too, a new forward may be needed after all.
Perhaps De Ketelaere could be that player.
