Chelsea agree £60m Joao Pedro transfer and use FIFA rule to land Club World Cup boost

Chelsea are set to complete a £60m deal for Joao Pedro - and get him signed in time to play in the Club World Cup.

Brighton have agreed a fee worth £55m plus £5m in add-ons and have granted Pedro permission to fly from Brazil to the United States to complete the move.

That would allow Pedro to be registered by FIFA’s special Club World Cup transfer deadline on July 3 to allow him to play in the quarter-final against Palmeiras in Philadelphia on Friday.

Brazil star Pedro, 23, is set to sign a seven-year contract after Chelsea beat off competition from Newcastle who had a £50m-plus offer turned down.

It is a major coup for Chelsea but will immediately raise question marks over Nicolas Jackson’s future while Christopher Nkunku will be allowed to leave with Manchester United interested.

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Brighton signed Pedro from Watford in a deal worth around £30m in the summer of 2023 and are set to make another big profit as their clever dealings in the transfer market pay off again.

Pedro, who has scored 30 goals in 70 Albion appearances, was banished from Fabian Hurzeler's squad for the final two Premier League matches of the season following an alleged training ground spat with Dutch defender Jan Paul van Hecke.

Meanwhile, Enzo Maresca labelled the decision to suspend Chelsea’s Club World Cup last-16 tie with Benfica for two hours “a joke” even as his side eventually ran out 4-1 winners.

The tie took almost five hours to complete after the teams were forced inside, with the Blues 1-0 up with four minutes remaining thanks to Reece James ’ free-kick, due to “the risk of lightning in the vicinity of Bank of America Stadium”.

On the resumption, Angel Di Maria equalised with a controversial stoppage-time penalty to take the game to extra time, only for Christopher Nkunku, Pedro Neto and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to seal Chelsea’s win.

Maresca, in his press conference, said of the long delay: “I think it’s a joke, to be honest. It’s not football, it’s completely something new, I struggle to understand.

“I can understand if it’s security reasons but if you suspend seven or eight games then it’s probably not the right place to do the competition. It’s not normal to suspend the game. In a World Cup, how many games are suspended? Zero probably. In Europe how many games get suspended? Zero.

“We’ve been here two weeks and they’ve already suspended six or seven games, there is some problems for me personally.

“I’m talking as a manager because when you’re two hours inside and you have to try to keep them (the players) in the game, they’re speaking to their families outside for safety reasons, they’re eating, they’re playing, they’re laughing, how can you keep them inside focused for two hours? It’s a joke.”

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