By Yusuf Mutiu
Antonio Rudiger has revealed he played a key role in luring Timo Werner to sign for Chelsea.
Rudiger also tipped his German teammate to bring the ingenuity he is known for in Leipzig to Chelsea when he signed next month subject to passing a medical.
The blues pulled up a great recruit in getting a proven goalscorer for £53million, with the 24-year-old ready to give Chelsea another dimension in attack to Frank Lampard’s resurgent side.
The Chelsea centre back, Rudiger formed a great relationship with Werner at Stuttgart and admitted exploring those links in bringing Werner to the blue side of London.
“I did speak to him before because we have known each other for a long time,” Rudiger said.
“We spoke a lot during the lockdown, and he told me he was interested in coming to England. Of course, then I did my bit, what I had to do.
“I would say he’s a quiet, humble guy, always ready to do better.
“I hope he adapts quickly when he comes because as we all know, this competition is different than others.
Chelsea is ready to continue their spending spree as Leicester full-back Ben Chilwell, and Bayern Leverkusen highly-rated winger continued to be heavily linked with Chelsea.
The recruitments of Ajax Hakim Ziyech and Timo Werner has left an insight on expectations from Chelsea in the coming season, though, and Rudiger admitted he couldn’t wait to play alongside his old friend once more.
“Like everyone, I’m very excited that he’s chosen Chelsea and I’m looking forward to working with him,” Rudiger told Chelsea’s website.
“I’ve known him since he was 17 and he did very good in the past few years. He can be very important for us.
“His development was just “wow.” In his first season, everything was new for him in men’s football, but then he started scoring more goals and of course with that comes confidence. He had very good coaches who believed in him and worked with him.
“He’s a really big threat to defenders. RB Leipzig is a more counter-attacking team, but in terms of attacking the defensive line, he’s similar to (Leicester’s Jamie) Vardy.
“He has a lot of paces, and if the defender makes a mistake and loses the ball, then he goes!
