Chelsea have agreed an initial £29million fee for Palmeiras teenager Estevao Willian.
The deal for the 17-year old winger could rise to £55million with a number of add-ons.
Estevao is one of several young talents that Chelsea have been monitoring while developing a strong presence in South America with co-sporting director Laurence Stewart playing a key role in talks for Estevao.
The winger, who is known as ‘Messinho’ or ‘Little Messi’, cannot leave Brazil until he turns 18 next April but Chelsea were keen to head off competition amid interest from Arsenal and Barcelona.
Chelsea have also expressed interest in Shakhtar Donetsk’s 21-year old playmaker Georgiy Sudakov.
Meanwhile, Aston Villa have joined Tottenham on a growing list of clubs monitoring developments with Chelsea midfielder Conor Gallagher.
The 24-year old has been instrumental for Mauricio Pochettino this season and has never shied away from the fact he would prefer to stay at Stamford Bridge but his homegrown status makes him a stand out candidate for Chelsea to sell to stay on the right side of profit and sustainability rules this summer.
Gallagher, who also has an outside chance of making England’s European Championship squad, has still to discuss a new contract but will wait and see what happens with Pochettino over the next few weeks before considering his next step.
Ahead of a summer in which it was speculated that Chelsea were ready to ease their targeting of youth, the securing of Estevao is another indication that they remain dedicated to their strategy.
Chelsea were determined to land their latest youngster after missing out on Endrick, the Palmeiras teenager who scored Brazil’s winner against England at Wembley in March and is set to join Real Madrid this summer instead.
Kendry Paez, the 17-year-old who plays for Independiente Del Valle in Ecuador, has already agreed a deal to join Chelsea once he turns 18 next year.
Meanwhile, Hakim Ziyech is preparing to make his loan to Galatasaray a permanent move this summer.
