Antonio Conte has been on the lookout for a quality defender from the Serie A for some time now and after numerous rumours doing the rounds, some substantiated, some not so much, Chelsea finally announced the signing of Antonio Rudiger from Roma for an initial fee of £29m that could rise to £33.3m with add-on clauses.
Chelsea were touted to sign Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly or Juventus’ Leonardo Bonucci but an agreement couldn’t be reached with either club, paving the way for Rudiger. The 24-year-old has been a victim of racism in Italy and expressed shock at the lack of action taken in the country against perpetrators. Asked about a possible move to Juventus, the German defender who is fluent in English had expressed a desire to play in the Premier League.
Rudiger moved on to Stuttgart after finding it impossible to feature in Borussia Dortmund’s first eleven. He moved to Roma in 2015, three years after making his debut in Bundesliga. The German defender, standing at 190cm, made 30 appearances for the Italian club and finished runners-up to Juventus in the domestic league last season.
Rudiger’s signing, in a way, has been a long time coming. Jose Mourinho, then Chelsea boss, had shown interest in the German defender back in 2015 but Rudiger opted for Roma instead. An attempt made last season to sign the player didn’t lead anywhere, owing to a tear in his anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.
Chelsea has finally been able to unveil the player through a video showing a young boy requesting his dad for a Chelsea shirt with Rudiger’s name on the back. His dad tries to thwart the little boy asking him to choose between David Luiz or Hazard instead. The shop assistant seeing the undeterred resolve of the little fellow promises to help them out and is shown asking Rudiger, waiting in a stock room in a Chelsea jersey, whether it’s okay to give out jerseys with his name on it, to which the defender says, “no problem, I’m a Chelsea player now.”
The 6ft 3in defender, as a testament to his versatility, is comfortable playing anywhere in a back three and really hit another gear after Luciano Spaletti took over at Roma. Roma under Spaletti switched to 3 men at the back often and in such a setup, Rudiger really excelled. Deployed both as a right centre-back and a left centre-back, the player will provide competition to both Gary Cahill and Cesar Azpilicueta in Chelsea’s defence.
German manager, Joachim Low holds the defender in high esteem, and likening him to Boateng had said, “another Jerome Boateng… they’re so alike”. It is not hard to see where Low is coming from, considering Boateng’s composure on the ball and imposing physicality, coupled with precise ball-distribution; characteristics that match with the 24-year-old’s CV as well.
Although nowhere close to being among the best defenders in the world, Conte’s meticulous preparation that saw David Luiz transform into a defensive rock last season, could help Rudiger catapult himself in a category of preeminent defenders in no time.
