Roma centre back Antonio Rudiger is close to a move to Chelsea this summer, rejecting any chance of a “dream” move to Arsenal as he’d previously hoped for.

• Rudiger had been linked with Arsenal last summer
• He’s Chelsea’s third choice after losing out on Bonucci and van Dijk
• Rudiger once claimed Arsenal were his “dream club”

Rudiger has been tracked by Arsenal and Chelsea since he was a 20-year-old at Stuttgart.

Back in 2014, the German claimed he wanted to play in the Premier League and would love to play for Arsenal, a team that he followed. It was believed that Arsenal had the advantage over Chelsea then.

However, the Daily Mail reports that the German is on the verge of joining Chelsea for £30m. After failing to sign Juventus’ Leonardo Bonucci and Southampton’s Virgil van Dijk, Chelsea have turned to the Roma centre back to strengthen their defence for next season.

Arsenal were linked with a move last summer but opted to sign his Germany team mate Shkdoran Mustafi instead.