West Ham United are leaving nothing to chance in this summer transfer window – and have snatched the desired reinforcement for central defense from Juventus Turin: former Schalke player Jean-Clair Todibo decided to move to the Premier League after all
Thiago Motta would have loved to have him, but Julen Lopetegui can now look forward to him: Jean-Clair Todibo is not moving to Juventus Turin as recently expected, with the central defender joining West Ham United instead.
In the past few days, the Hammers had already completed deals for winger Crysencio Summerville, German international striker Niclas Füllkrug and world champion Guido Rodriguez for the defensive midfield. On Saturday, the desired reinforcement for the center of defence followed with Todibo. Particularly in view of the uncertain future of Nayef Aguerd and Kurt Zouma, who could leave West Ham this summer
Nice had been negotiating a Todibo transfer with Juventus for weeks – without success. The French side are said to have pushed for a sell-on deal, which West Ham have now granted them. The one-year loan is to be converted into a purchase obligation with few hurdles, after which 40 million euros would be guaranteed to flow to Nice. In the event of a sale, OGC would participate again. Tim Steidten, former “pearl diver” at Bayer 04 Leverkusen and now technical director at West Ham, had arranged the deal in the final stages.
“There was a lot of interest in Todibo throughout Europe this summer. That’s why we are once again grateful to the board for supporting us in signing a player who is approaching the peak of his career,” said Steidten about his seventh new summer signing, whom he describes as one of the “strongest central defenders in Ligue 1 in terms of footballing ability.”
Stopover at Schalke
Todibo trained at Toulouse before being sold to FC Barcelona in January 2019. The Catalans passed the defensive specialist on to FC Schalke 04 just twelve months later. Todibo made eight Bundesliga appearances and two DFB Cup appearances for the Royal Blues, with S04 finishing twelfth.
After an unsuccessful six months at Benfica Lisbon, Todibo moved to Nice, who transferred a total of €8.5 million to Barcelona in July 2021 to sign Todibo permanently. He has made a total of 125 Ligue 1 appearances, 115 of them for OGC, in which he scored three goals and set up three others