PSG strengthening the defense with a 63 million Ukrainian

Lukasz Chevalier will arrive in a 40,000,000 euros transfer (excluding bonuses) to put Gianluigi Donnarumma under pressure from competition, but coach Luis Enrique is already unhappy, as next week is the UEFA Super Cup match against Tottenham and Paris Saint-Germain have yet to officially welcome their first signing. The club, however, remains calm, confident that they have already secured a second reinforcement. According to L’Équipe, Ukrainian centre-back Ilya Zabarnyi will also arrive at the Parc des Princes by the end of the week.

And he will cost more than Chevalier, as Bournemouth’s defender was also wanted by Tottenham, who initially offered even more than PSG, forcing Nasser Al-Khelaifi to raise his bid. According to the latest information, PSG will pay the English club 63,000,000 in fixed fees — 60,000,000 for the transfer and 3,000,000 for Bournemouth to forward to Zabarnyi’s former clubs, namely Dynamo Kyiv, under UEFA’s solidarity mechanism. On top of that, there will be some minor bonuses, the only detail left to finalise, but they will not significantly change the amount. Bournemouth will earn between one and three million euros extra — negligible sums in deals of this magnitude.

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The player himself will receive a five-year contract, with everything expected to be completed by the end of the week so that Enrique can count on the Ukrainian as early as Wednesday for the clash with Tottenham. All parties insist the deal is done — though they have been saying that for over a month now. Illia Zabarnyi is 22 years old, 189 cm tall, with 84 senior appearances for Dynamo Kyiv and another 86 for Bournemouth, as well as 49 caps for the Ukrainian national team. In their last friendly against New Zealand, he even wore the captain’s armband.

It’s hard to imagine PSG finding a more talented defender — now it remains to be seen how he will cope with fierce competition from the likes of Marquinhos and Willian Pacho above all, but also Lucas Beraldo and Lucas Hernandez (primarily a left-back), as well as Presnel Kimpembe, if he even stays — which, at the moment, seems unlikely.