AC Milan are set to complete the signing of France international striker Olivier Giroud from Chelsea in the coming days, sources have confirmed to CBS Sports.
Giroud, who turns 35 in September, is expected to sign a two year contract at the San Siro with Chelsea receiving a fee that could ultimately reach $3.5 million. The Blues activated an option to extend his contract to 2022 earlier this year but the veteran forward was set to be behind Kai Havertz, Timo Werner and any potential new signing at center forward this season.
Giroud has enjoyed considerable Premier League success since joining Arsenal in the summer of 2012 with the Premier League being the only top tier club honor to have evaded his grasp over the past nine years. At the Emirates Stadium he won three FA Cups and scored over 100 goals but his greatest team success came after he departed for west London in 2018. With Chelsea Giroud won a further FA Cup -- only four players have won more in English football history -- the 2019 Europa League and the 2021 Champions League.
It was also while a Chelsea player that Giroud won the 2018 World Cup with France and he will hope that regular game time with AC Milan will keep him in contention for Didier Deschamps' squad that will aim to retain the trophy in Qatar next year.
What are AC Milan getting?
For Stefano Pioli's side the addition of Giroud offers them a back up option to the very specific sort of striker that Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been for them: an additional veteran target man who is able to make smart passes and link play between onrushing forwards, can compete with the best defenders in the air and has a penchant for spectacular goals.
Certainly the likes of Rafael Leao, Jens Petter Hauge and Samu Castillejo will relish working with Giroud, a relatively unselfish striker who can strike up strong bonds with the inside forwards and wingers he is paired alongside. Not for nothing did former Chelsea team mate Eden Hazard describe him as "the world's best target man" in 2018.
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With Ibrahimovic due to turn 40 this season Giroud is something of a spring chicken by comparison and will ease the load on the Swede, who featured in just half of Milan's games last season. His absence with knee issues late in the season coincided with a wobble that almost saw the Rossoneri lose the top four berth that would take them into the Champions League though they secured qualification on the final day.
Having averaged a goal every 109 minutes last season with Chelsea, Giroud proved he can still be reliable in the penalty box. His record in the Champions League, where he scored the winner in the round of 16 first leg against Atletico Madrid as well as four goals against Sevilla, augurs well for a club who will return to the competition for the first time since the 2013-14 season. Though Giroud has been a fringe player since leaving Arsenal he continues to score at a solid clip; in his time at Stamford Bridge he averaged 0.48 goals per 90 minutes in the Premier League, the 19th best return of any player with 10 or more goals to their name in that period.
Why are Chelsea letting him go?
Giroud is not short of admirers at Stamford Bridge and Cobham. Though stories over his future have continually swirled during his three and a half years at Chelsea, a period where he has rarely been a consistent starter but has invariably repaid the faith shown in him by his managers. Tuchel can certainly be counted among those admirers.
"If you see him on a daily basis, you cannot be surprised," the Chelsea manager said after Giroud's goal against Atletico Madrid. "He is totally fit, his body is in shape and his physicality is on top level. Mentally I have really the feeling he enjoys every day being a professional soccer player on this level and this is the level he needs to be.
"He trains like a 20-year-old, like a 24-year-old. He is a guy who has a good mixture of serious and joy in training. He is always positive and it is a big factor for the group."
Worth the wait. Olivier Giroud with a spectacular finish. 🚲 pic.twitter.com/VT5ojrD2NS
— CBS Sports Golazo (@CBSSportsGolazo) February 23, 2021
Ultimately, however, there was an acceptance in west London that if Giroud wanted to feature regularly in the final years of his career he would not be able to do so at Chelsea. Kai Havertz's emergence as Tuchel's favored center forward option late last season sent the Frenchman further down a depth chart that also includes Timo Werner and Tammy Abraham, whose own future is in doubt heading into the new season.
Then there is Chelsea's pursuit of another striker to consider. The Blues would love to beat their rivals to the punch and secure Erling Haaland from Borussia Dortmund as soon as this summer, an unlikely but ambitious goal, whilst they have also been linked with their former striker Romelu Lukaku, now at Inter Milan. The Belgian, however, has indicated he does not plan to leave Serie A this summer.
