Chelsea centre-back Fikayo Tomori is on the brink of finalising a permanent switch to Italian giants AC Milan, according to reports in Italy.
Tomori, who missed out on a place in Gareth Southgate's England squad for this summer's European Championship, spent the second half of the 2020/21 campaign on loan in Serie A and produced a series of impressive performances for the Italian heavyweights.
Now, Tomori is very close to sealing a permanent move to the San Siro. According to Italian media outlet Calciomercato, as cited by TEAMtalk, Milan hope to finalise the deal in the next few days and officially announce Tomori as a Milan player on a permanent basis on Friday.
Having been immediately impressed by the impact Tomori had in Milan, club bosses soon set about entering negotiations with Chelsea about trying to land the former Derby County loanee at the best price possible.
It is claimed that Milan will sign Tomori for €27million (£23.2m), with €1million having already been paid as part of the loan fee that saw him swap Stamford Bridge for the San Siro in January.
In total, Tomori played 22 times for Milan during his loan spell, with 17 of those outings coming in Serie A.
Recently, Milan director Paolo Maldini waxed lyrical about Tomori's impact at Milan and made it clear that they want to sign him on a permanent basis.
"Fikayo is a player with interesting qualities," said Maldini. "He is quick, hard-working and was someone we were following closely with January in mind.
"The deal contains an option to sign him from Chelsea.
"I’m lucky to work in a club where if a player knows we want them, it makes an impact."
Should the deal go through without any late snags or hitches, Tomori will leave Stamford Bridge having made a total of 27 appearances for the Blues, scoring two goals and claiming one assist.
Tomori will become the second player to leave Stamford Bridge this summer for a transfer fee, following in the footsteps of youngster Pierre Ekwah Elimby. The defensive-minded midfielder last week joined West Ham United.
