Wolves set to miss out on Gabriel Slonina signing
Wolves are set to miss out on the signing of goalkeeper Gabriel Slonina as he nears a move to Premier League rivals Chelsea.
The 18-year-old American international, who plays for Major League Soccer club Chicago Fire, has been attracting interest from major clubs across Europe, including Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.
Wolves have been working on a £3million deal to sign Slonina for a number of weeks but the Express & Star understands he will now not be making the switch to Molineux.
Instead, the goalkeeper is reportedly due to sign for Chelsea in a deal worth around £8.6million before staying with Chicago Fire on-loan.
Wolves hoped that the pathway they could offer for young players to play first-team football would tempt the American to the club, however earlier this month Slonina’s agent publicly said the player wanted to move to Madrid.
The Spanish side had a bid rejected before Chelsea swooped and the teenager is now due to sign for the London club.
Slonina made his senior debut for Chicago Fire in August last year, making him the youngest starting goalkeeper in the league’s history at just 17 years and 81 days.
He has represented the United States at four different youth levels and has twice been called up to the senior side, but has yet to earn a cap.
In May, he was called up to the senior Poland team for their upcoming Nations League games but he rejected the call-up and pledged his international future to the United States.
Meanwhile, former Wolves defender Romain Saiss has joined Besiktas after he was pictured completing a medical in Turkey.
The Moroccan international was offered a new deal at Wolves but the two parties could not come to an agreement before he left on a free transfer after his contract had ended.
Saiss enjoyed six successful years at Molineux and has now joined Turkish club Besiktas, who Wolves beat twice in the group stages of the Europa League in 2019.
