Why Chelsea should pursue £7m starlet Anel Ahmedhodzic

According to Kvallsposten (h/t Express), long-term Chelsea target Anel Ahmedhodzic is said to be valued at £7.39million. The Malmo defender has been on the radar of the Blues for a while now. The youngster has attracted the attention of several clubs such as PSV, Ajax and Atalanta with his performances for the Swedish side.

Profile

Anel Ahmedhodzic is a 21-year-old Swedish centre-back who plays for Allsvenskan side Malmo FF. The player spent most of his youth career at Malmo after starting for the club in 2004. He remained at the club for close to 16 years before moving to Nottingham Forest’s youth setup. Despite spending around three seasons at the club across various levels, he made just one appearance for the senior side.

Malmo signed him at the start of 2019 but was loaned out to Hobro IK for the 2019-20 season. In 19 games for them, he scored and assisted a goal each (source – Transfermarkt). On his return, he was slotted into the backline at Malmo and hasn’t looked back since. He has made 39 appearances for Malmo so far, scoring 2 goals.

While he played for Sweden through the youth levels and made one senior appearance, he ended up switching to Bosnia and Herzegovina using his parents’ nationality. He has played twice for them to date.

Chelsea would be getting a bargain deal in Ahmedhodzic

For quite a while during this season, Chelsea looked like they were genuine title challengers. Their attack was functioning well and the defence looked solid as ever. Yet as one looks at their last 5 games, they have lost three of those and one of them came against a demoralised Arsenal side.

One of their problems has been the defence, which previously looked solid but is now leaking goals. The duo of Kurt Zouma and Thiago Silva is a good one but it’s clear that they need something more than that. Ahmedhodzic is starting to make a name for himself in Europe and is slowly developing into a good centre-back.

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The Malmo centre-back fits the bill of what Chelsea need. He is a good young player with a lot of potential. In a couple of seasons, he could well develop into one of the better defenders in Europe. Ahmedhodzic is a necessity at this point and would be a good boost to the Chelsea backline. At £7.39million, he would be a real steal in today’s market.