Athletic Bilbao have confirmed that Kepa Arrizabalaga has paid his release clause ahead of a move to Chelsea.
Kepa emerged as Chelsea’s main target to replace Thibaut Courtois, who is seemingly bound for Real Madrid, on Tuesday.
With the Premier League transfer deadline looming on Thursday, Chelsea have wasted little time in pushing ahead with a world-record deal.
Bilbao have confirmed that they have received a full payment of £71.6m from Kepa, with the goalkeeper buying out his release clause.
The Spanish club added that Kepa ‘has expressed his desire to terminate and unilaterally resolve’ his contract, thanking the player for ‘his contribution’, and adding that they will continue to honour their Basque traditions in the face of ‘an unwanted exit’.
The 23-year-old will become the most expensive goalkeeper of all-time, eclipsing the initial £56m fee Liverpool paid to sign Alisson.
Kepa will now travel to London to finalise his move to Stamford Bridge. Chelsea plan to unveil him on Thursday.
Faced with the loss of Thibaut Courtois, Chelsea are preparing to break the world transfer record for a goalkeeper in paying £71.6m to bring in Kepa Arrizabalaga from Athletic Bilbao. It is a huge decision to sign a 23-year-old with only one cap for Spain to his name. But in an inflated market, this was arguably a necessary move to avoid an alarming dip in quality.
Like many academy graduates at Athletic Bilbao, Kepa took his first steps into senior football at fourth-tier feeder club Basconia before representing Bilbao Athletic – the Basque club’s B team. There were then second-tier loan spells at Ponferradina and Real Valladolid, where he gained more valuable experience.
It served him well when he returned to Atheltic Bilbao in 2016 and became their first-choice goalkeeper in Ernesto Valverde’s final year in charge. The current Barcelona coach awarded him his debut in La Liga away to Deportivo La Coruna and was soon praising his “great maturity” in the role.
“He has some things that he knows he has to improve,” said Valverde later that season, after Kepa had helped Athletic qualify for Europe. “But he is a goalkeeper with good reflexes, a great presence and a great confidence that he transmits to others.”
In November 2017, he duly made his senior debut for Spain in a 5-0 win over Costa Rica.The reflexes that Valverde spoke of are supported by the statistics.
Kepa is an impressive shot-stopper. Not only did he save two of the three penalties that he faced in La Liga last season but he produced 64 saves from inside the penalty area – the third most of any goalkeeper in the competition.
While he is also impressive with the ball at his feet, Kepa will still need to adjust to the passing style of play that Sarri prefers. At Athletic, he made more accurate long balls – 368 – than any other goalkeeper in La Liga last season but there will be a greater emphasis on the short stuff at Chelsea where he must build from the back.
Of course, replacing Courtois will be a huge challenge. Despite Chelsea underperforming last season, the Belgium number one did not make a single error leading to a goal in his 35 Premier League appearances. Kepa made two such errors at Athletic last season and the scrutiny of being the world’s most expensive goalkeeper will mean they must be cut out.
Kepa’s move to Chelsea comes just a few months after he rejected an offer from Real Madrid, instead signing a new seven-and-a-half year contract at Athletic Bilbao containing the £71.6m buy-out clause the Blues decided to trigger this week.
“Those who are close to me know that I am a person who likes to analyse everything before making a decision,” he said at the time. “I have taken my time and I want to thank the club that respected it to make my decision.”
Kepa said he intended to stay at his boyhood club for a “long time”, but the chance to succeed Courtois at Chelsea was evidently too good to refuse.