Willian transfer to Chelsea 'agreed for the summer'

Willian will leave Shakhtar Donetsk for Chelsea in the summer transfer window, according to sources in his native Brazil.

The Blues had a £16 million bid for the attacking midfielder rejected last month, but the Ukrainian club indicated they were willing to sell if they received an offer closer to the £29 million buyout clause in his contract.

 

It now appears Chelsea returned with an improved package and that a deal is close to being agreed.
The information was leaked by Santos chairman Luis Alvaro, after the Brazilian club had their request to take the 23-year-old on loan rejected.
'We gave up because of a proposal that they received from Chelsea,' he told Jornal da Manha.

 'It was an offer of tens of millions of euros. It seems that he should go there in the middle of the year.'

Willian has signalled he is keen to join Chelsea, as he believes playing in one of Europe's major leagues would help him to clinch a place in the Brazil squad for the 2014 World Cup.
'There was talk about Barcelona and Arsenal before but now Chelsea are interested,' he said last month.
'If the next step of the adventure is England, then I would be excited by that.'

-Sham