Chelsea face competition from Crystal Palace to sign highly-ratedl BRAZIL teenager

Crystal Palace have joined Chelsea in the race to sign highly-rated Brazilian teenager Matheus Franca, according to reports.

Following on from the signing of Andrey Santos, Chelsea have been looking at a number of young stars from South America as Mauricio Pochettino continues his rebuild of the team.

Earlier this week it was reported that the Blues were close to agreeing a deal to sign 19-year-old Franca from Flamengo.

However, Globo via the Daily Mail now report that Palace have also sent a proposal to Flamengo and are keen to sign the midfielder having been tentatively linked with him over the past few months.

Franca is valued at around £22million and is tipped for a bright future having already scored nine goals in just 27 senior appearances, winning the Copa Libertadores and Copa do Brasil last year.

It is said that he is ‘keen to join the Premier League’, but while Chelsea are on paper the bigger club, Palace may have the advantage over their London rivals.

This is because the Eagles can offer him immediate game time at Selhurst Park, while the Blues’ plan would be to loan him out to Strasbourg.

Todd Boehly and co. recently bought a majority stake in the Ligue 1 club and have hired former Palace manager Patrick Vieira.

The South Londoners have been relatively quiet in the transfer window so far, with Jefferson Lerma’s free transfer from Bournemouth their only signing.

Signing Franca would go someway to easing the loss of talisman Wilfried Zaha, though the club legend is still a free agent and undecided on his future so could yet return to Selhurst Park.

Midfield is an area in which Chelsea need to improve having lost N’Golo Kante, Mason Mount, Mateo Kovacic and Ruben Loftus-Cheek all in the same summer.

Pochettino has been targeting Brighton’s Moises Caicedo who is keen to move to Stamford Bridge, but the Seagulls are demanding over £100m for their star player.