Chelsea have activated a clause in Olivier Giroud’s contract to keep the France international at Stamford Bridge for a further 12 months.
The 32-year-old had been linked with a return to France but head coach Maurizio Sarri was desperate to keep Giroud at the club after a season in which he scored 12 goals and provided eight assists in 44 appearances.
Former Arsenal striker Giroud is the joint-leading goalscorer in this season’s Europa League with 10 goals but had found Premier League opportunities harder to come by behind both Alvaro Morata and Gonzalo Higuain in the pecking order.
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There is a strong chance neither of those strikers will be at Chelsea next season, making it all the more important that the Blues have Giroud in their plans for the 2019/20 campaign with the looming threat of a transfer ban that could preclude them from making any signings in the summer window.
Nice and Marseille had both expressed an interest in signing Giroud, who had at times this season expressed his frustration with the limited first-team opportunities available to him.
“Next year I will need to have a more important role to play,” he said last month. “The most important thing for me is to be happy on the pitch, to enjoy the game and to have more minutes.
“I’m a competitor. I really want to play more. The thing is, I just want to enjoy it, because I’m 32 and I’ve won the World Cup, but I want to retire satisfied.”
Though it remains to be seen exactly what role Giroud will have in the coming season the Blues can ill afford to be without a Premier League veteran at a time when their ability to sign new players is far from clear.
FIFA have banned Chelsea from making signings for two windows and the Blues are expected to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
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