England striker Tammy Abraham joins Roma from Chelsea in record breaking transfer for an English player moving overseas
Tammy Abraham has left Chelsea for Roma in a €40m (£34.1m) transfer that makes him the most expensive English player ever signed by an overseas club.
England centre-forward Abraham has signed a five-year contract with the Italian team, where he will be reunited with former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho.
The fee of £34.1m eclipses the transfer fees paid for English youngsters Jude Bellingham and Fikayo Tomori and Real Madrid’s 2003 signing of David Beckham.
Bellingham cost Borussia Dortmund €25m (£22.75m) when the midfielder joined the Bundesliga side from Birmingham City aged just 17 last year.
AC Milan paid €28.75m (£25m) to sign defender Tomori, who came through the ranks with Abraham, from Chelsea earlier this summer.
Beckham, meanwhile, cost Real Madrid €35m when he moved from Manchester United 18 years ago, a fee that converted to £24.5m at the time.
Abraham, 23, joined Chelsea as a boy and went on to make 82 senior appearances for the club, scoring 30 goals.
But the England international has been sidelined by the return of Belgium striker Romelu Lukaku to the European champions and had also been linked with a move across London to Arsenal.
“You can sense when a club really wants you – and Roma made their interest clear immediately,” said Abraham.
“Roma is a club that deserves to be fighting for titles and trophies. I’ve had the experience of winning major trophies and I want to be in those competitions again – so I want to help this team to achieve that and get to the level where Roma should be.
“It’s a massive honour to be the No 9 at this club and I just can’t wait to get started and to help the team.”