Chelsea in £50M Falcao Swoop

Posted Thursday, February 09, 2012 by Dailystar.co.uk

Chelsea in £50M Falcao Swoop
Above: Falcao bagged 17 in 14 Europa League games for winners Porto to set a new European scoring record.

Chelsea are lining up a mega-money swoop for Atletico Madrid striker Falcao.

And the Blues could even offer £50m flop Fernando Torres as bait to land the prolifi c Colombian.

Despite Torres’ record-breaking move to Stamford Bridge turning into a disaster, the Blues are ready to spend big again on a replacement striker.

Starsport can reveal Chelsea have had representatives at virtually every Atletico Madrid game for the last three months watching Falcao, who is 26 on Friday.

Blues boss Andre Villas-Boas knows the striker well from their time together at Porto.

Falcao – full name Radamel Falcao Garcia Zarate – has a £50m buy-out clause in his contract, although it is understood the Spanish side would sell for less if former Atletico hero Torres was part of the deal.

Torres has scored just five times in 45 games and hasn’t hit the back of the net in more than 18 hours.

A move back to Spain and the club where his career began would give Torres an ideal escape route from his Chelsea nightmare.

Owner Roman Abramovich was at the training HQ for the second successive day yesterday to keep an eye on the team’s progress.

Nicolas Anelka has moved to Shanghai, while Didier Drogba could be on his way after failing to agree a new deal.

Falcao has become one of Europe’s top finishers since moving to Porto from River Plate in 2009.

He scored 62 goals in 72 games, including 33 in 36 outings under Villas-Boas last season.

Falcao bagged 17 in 14 Europa League games for winners Porto to set a new European scoring record.

This term he has scored another 17 goals in 25 games for Atletico Madrid.

Falcao was tipped to follow Villas-Boas to Chelsea before his £35m summer move to Spain.

Villas-Boas has conceded defeat in his bid to land long-term target Neymar from Santos.

One player definitely joining is 15-year-old defender Andreas Chris- tensen. The Denmark Under-17 ace will move from Brondby this summer after agreeing a deal at the weekend.