Kai Havertz sensationally favoured joining Real Madrid over Chelsea before the coronavirus pandemic shattered his hopes, according to reports.
The Bayer Leverkusen starlet is edging ever closer to a move to Stamford Bridge this summer after the Bundesliga club accepted an offer believed to be worth £89million.
But Marca have now claimed that Havertz was dreaming of heading to the Bernabeu instead, only for the financial fallout from the global health crisis to bring a premature end to the switch.
The Spanish publication report that Havertz was desperate for the big-money transfer to LaLiga and has settled on joining Chelsea after his first-choice outfit were unable to gather together enough funds.
It has been suggested that Real’s plan was to snap up the highly-coveted Havertz this summer, but the club revealed in July that they would be surprisingly quiet during the current market.
Havertz also reportedly snubbed interest from recently-crowned Champions League winners Bayern Munich, with his sights having been firmly set on working under Zinedine Zidane.
Real Madrid dropping out of the race allowed Chelsea to steal in and prolong their remarkable spending spree this month.
The west London outfit were able to seal negotiations after convincing Havertz to buy into their ambitious project ahead of the new season.
The press in Germany have claimed that Leverkusen begrudgingly accepted Chelsea’s hefty package, in what will prove to be a club-record deal for the Premier League side.
An offer of €80m with a further €20m in add ons is said to have been enough to convince Leverkusen to part with their prized asset.
Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia has been conducting the talks and appears to have finally made the breakthrough.
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