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Official: Lyon have confirmed the signing of Bertrand Traore from Chelsea on a five-year contract.
The French club announced the signing on Twitter:"It is official: Bertrand Traore is Lyonnais! A transfer for 10m euros (£8.8m) and a five-year contract.
The Burkina Faso international, 21, has spent recent seasons on loan at the Dutch clubs Vitesse Arnhem and Ajax and will now move to France on a contract until 2022.
Traore has an impressive loan spell with Ajax in which he scored 13 goals and helped the club to the Europa League Final where they were defeated by Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United. In the semi-final Ajax beat Traore’s new club Lyon. He scored two of the goals.
A press conference staged by Lyon to unveil Traoré began in bizarre fashion, with a seat left empty at the table while the club president, Jean-Michel Aulas, and coach, Bruno Genesio, discussed a range of other matters. Aulas, quoted by L’Equipe, made mention of “technical difficulties” in concluding the transfer and added that Traoré “will not be present for the return to training on Tuesday”. But the player was eventually introduced during the press conference and posed for photographs with the club’s shirt.
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| Bertrand Traore double puts Ajax in control of Europa League semi-final. |
Born in Sep 6, 1995, Traoré officially joined Chelsea in 2013, having previously appeared for them as a triallist after emerging from Auxerre’s academy. He never established himself in the first team and, after his recent loan moves, is looking to carve out a long-term role for himself.
Traore, who scored 13 goals in 39 appearances at Ajax last season, becomes the third loanee to be sold by Chelsea in this transfer window.
Traoré took the unconventional path to Chelsea, catching the eye at the 2009 Under-17 World Cup as a 14-year-old and eventually making appearances for Chelsea youth sides in unofficial games and friendlies. Traoré was part of Chelsea’s first-team for the 2015-16 season. He had to wait until the latter half of the season to see any sort of significant involvement though, and didn’t disappoint when he was called upon by Guus Hiddink.
Despite being among a strike-force bloated with the likes of Falcao, Alexandre Pato, Diego Costa and Loic Remy, Traoré made 16 appearances and scored 4 goals, averaging a goal every 128 minutes. His most memorable involvement that season was a long-range strike against Stoke City followed by a passionate celebration which made for an absolutely euphoric few moments.
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