The world’s most expensive goalkeeper will head to the mid-tier Premier League team. Chelsea’s Kepa Arrizabalaga has transferred to Bournemouth on loan.

Kepa Arrizabalaga joined on loan, adding, I’m happy to sign a one-season lease with Kepa.

Neil Blake, Bournemouth’s chief executive, said, I am pleased to bring a player with the skills of Kepa to Bournemouth. I was aware of his potential to play and wanted to take the opportunity to recruit him on loan. I believe an interesting player has been added to the goalkeeper’s team.

At the same time, Chelsea, the original team, announced that it has extended Kepa’s contract. The contract is extended by one more year than before to 2026. However, Chelsea is considering Kepa as a candidate for liquidation. I have no intention of accompanying Kepa anymore.

Kepa, the world’s most expensive goalkeeper has been confirmed for a loan move to Bournemouth. Chelsea has begun to clean up its bomb squad, the British newspaper The Sun said. Kepa’s position has declined in recent years. He was loaned to Real Madrid last season but made only 20 appearances, before returning to London to find his team number deleted. New manager Enzo Maresca had no intention of including Kepa in this season’s plans.

Maresca put Kepa in the so-called bomb squad. The bomb squad is a group of players who train separately at the club, he said. Although his future at Stampford Bridge is uncertain, Kepa signed a one-year contract extension before leaving for Bournemouth. It was supposed to expire this season, but if he didn’t agree to the extension, he had to leave the team on a free agent basis.

Kepa, a native of Athletic Bilbao, Spain, joined Chelsea as a substitute for Thibaut Courtois, who left for Real Madrid in 2018. With a transfer fee of 72.6 million pounds (about 127.3 billion won), he remains the most expensive goalkeeper in soccer history. Kepa, who played as the top goalkeeper in La Liga, easily adapted to the Premier League and performed brilliantly.

However, the incident that rejected the manager’s order to replace him in 2019 has become the center of controversy. In the League Cup final against Manchester City, Kepa refused to replace Maurizio Sarri, the then manager, and stayed on the pitch. Sarri expressed tremendous anger, and local media also carpetbombed Kepa.

Although it turned out to be a misunderstanding during the communication process, he suffered from mental difficulties, and his form fell completely vertically due to the breakup with his girlfriend ahead of the 2019-20 season. In the end, he gave up the main goalkeeper position to Edouard Mendy.

In the 2022-23 season, he was once again Chelsea’s main goalkeeper, but was loaned to Real, who was looking for a Courtois backup who suffered a knee injury when Chelsea recruited outstanding goalkeepers such as Robert Sanchez and Jorge Petrovic ahead of last season.

Early in the season, he played well as Real’s main goalkeeper, 메이저사이트 but fell to the bench after losing to Andriy Lunin, who was the second-ranked goalkeeper from the middle of the season. After Courtois returned from injury in the second half of the season, he fell to the third place.

Kepa had won the Real League and the Champions League but lost ground, and returned to Chelsea. Kepa has played in just 108 matches for Chelsea for the past six years.

Kepa sought to transfer to secure time to play. Realizing that Kepa was not included in Chelsea’s plan, Kepa contacted Bournemouth, and Bournemouth coach Andoni Iraola reportedly guaranteed Kepa a starting position. He is expected to start in a match against Everton scheduled for the weekend.