Chelsea Drop Pursuit of Atletico’s Omorodion After Double Rejection

Chelsea have withdrawn from the race to sign 20-year-old Atletico Madrid striker Samu Omorodion after seeing two bids turned down by the Spanish giants.

The Spain Under-21 international of Nigerian descent has returned to the Wanda Metropolitano following a successful loan spell with Alaves in the 2023/24 season, where he scored eight goals and provided an assist in 34 La Liga contests.

Omorodion’s form attracted the attention of two-time UCL winners Chelsea, who have been known for spending large transfer sums for promising players since Todd Boehly took over. Last month, it was reported that the Blues had made an opening offer of around €30m (£25.3m), which could have risen to €40m (£33.7m) with add-ons. However, Atletico swiftly rejected the bid.

Undeterred, the West London club returned with an improved offer of £42m, but this too was rejected. Omorodion’s contract with Atletico does not expire for another four seasons, and the club were reportedly holding out for a fee of around £70m to sell the striker, who has yet to make his first-team debut for Diego Simeone’s side.

As a result, Spanish outlet Marca claims that Chelsea have now pulled out of the race to sign the 2004-born talent, having ‘had enough’ of Atletico constantly turning down their reasonable offers.

Chelsea’s board had earmarked Omorodion as a potential leading marksman for the future, but Atletico believe he can flourish in Spain in the coming seasons. Simeone views the 20-year-old as a potential successor to Memphis Depay and, with uncertainty over the future of Alvaro Morata, Atletico are keen to retain Omorodion.

Furthermore, the attacker himself is understood to be keen on staying at Atletico and making a name for himself in the red and white shirt, forcing Chelsea to look elsewhere in their search for new attacking talents.