Chelsea have reached an agreement with OFK Belgrade to sign 16-year-old centre-half Slobodan Rajkovic. The deal is said to be worth £3.5m — a world record for a player under 18 years of age.
“OFK and Chelsea have reached an agreement for Rajkovic,” said Belgrade general director Vladimir Bulatovic.
“He will stay with us until the end of the 2006-07 season and then he will join Chelsea.”
Rajkovic is already a regular for the Serbia and Montenegro Under-21s and had attracted interest from Arsenal having spent time at the Gunners’ youth camp last summer.
AC Milan, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Monaco, Marseille, Inter Milan, Juventus and Barcelona had also reportedly been tracking the teenager.
