August 17, (THEWILL) – UEFA Champions League winners Chelsea continued their transfer business on Tuesday with the confirmation of the move of striker Tammy Abraham to Serie A club AS Roma.
The player broke the club transfer record with his £34 million fee and signed a five-year contract with the Serie A club as he rejoins former Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho.
Abraham is the club’s fourth signing this Summer with Mourinho attempting to put together a squad built as he prefers to play football. The former Chelsea forward was assigned the Number 9 shirt to lead the frontline of Roma’s attacking players and keep them firing.
In comments after the confirmation, Abraham recalled the convincing way Roma illustrated their interest in him. He said: “You can sense when a club really wants you – and Roma made their interest clear immediately.”
He continued saying: “Roma is a club that deserves to be fighting for titles and trophies. I’ve had the experience of winning major trophies and I want to be in those competitions again – so I want to help this team to achieve that and get to the level where Roma should be.
“It’s a massive honour to be the No. 9 at this club and I just can’t wait to get started and to help the team.”
There was a cyclic transfer that eventually culminated in Abraham’s arrival at Roma. Romelu Lukaku was convinced to leave Italian League winners Inter to Chelsea. Inter replaced him with Roma’s Edin Dzeko and Abraham, whose place Lukaku will take, went to take the slot vacated by Dzeko at Roma.
In the Italian capital, the immediate task of the 23-year-old will be reaching Dzeko’s goal output which came to 120 in 243 matches from signing permanently in July 2016. Last season, the Bosnia and Herzegovina forward was not at his productive best, managing just 7 goals in 20 starts for Roma. It will not be such a high bar for Abraham to scale.
Tiago Pinto, Roma’s General Manager, was pleased to have Abraham at Roma. He said: “Despite still being very young, with a huge amount of potential to keep improving, Tammy has already played more than 200 games in his career and scored over 100 goals – and won a number of major trophies too.
“Choosing to leave the Premier League, and the club he grew up at, demonstrates very clearly just how much he believes in this opportunity to develop his own game and show what he can do at Roma.
“Bringing in players that have such a hunger and desire to play for our club is hugely important in helping to build the identity and sense of belonging that is a fundamental part of our overall vision for this team.”
Abraham will be in good new company with Roma having brought in Rui Patricio, Eldor Shomurodov and Matias Vina in this summer transfer business. The striker has also come in good time because the opening Serie A game of the season for Roma is on Sunday and is a home tie against Fiorentina.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
