Chelsea are in advanced talks with Southampton over a season-long loan move for young striker Armando Broja, football.london understands.
The 19-year-old spent the early weeks of pre-season working with the makeshift first-team group under Thomas Tuchel and was on the scoresheet in friendlies against Peterborough and Bournemouth. Broja also struck during the intra-squad friendly that was held in Ireland.
However, once Timo Werner and Kai Havertz returned from their respective breaks, Broja dropped out of the first-team picture. He didn't feature in either of the Mind Series games against Arsenal and Tottenham but did play for the Development Squad in a pre-season friendly against Woking.
Tuchel now has his full attacking options available to him and Chelsea are also set to complete the signing of Romelu Lukaku from Inter in the coming days.
As a result, Chelsea have decided the next step for Broja is to head out on loan and, despite interest from clubs in Europe, a move to St Mary's is now the most likely option.
Talks between the two clubs have been ongoing for the past two days and while nothing has yet been finalised, a deal is expected to be struck ahead of the start of the Premier League season.
Broja has enjoyed a dramatic rise over the past two years. Going into the 2019/20 campaign, he hadn't signed a professional contract with Chelsea and has scored just twice the previous season.
However, he would score 14 goals for the youth team and three for the Under-23s. Just before the United Kingdom was plunged into lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, Broja was handed his first-team debut by Frank Lampard against Everton.
Last August, Broja, still only 18 years old, agreed to join Dutch side Vitesse Arnhem for the 2020/21 season.
The Albania international would go on to score ten goals for the Dutch side in the Eredivisie, a figure no teenager in Europe's top ten divisions could match.
Broja's rapid development was rewarded by Chelsea last month as he signed a new five-year deal with the club he supported as a boy.
Not bad going for a player who didn't have a professional contract weaved into his scholarship three years ago.
"Having come through the academy here it was a special moment for me to make my first-team debut last year, before gaining further experience on loan at Vitesse last season," Broja told Chelsea's website.
"I want to build on these foundations and I am really looking forward to progressing and making an impact at Chelsea in the years to come."
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