Chelsea loan Mohamed Salah to Roma to step up pursuit of Fiorentina's Juan Cuadrado

Mohamed Salah’s loan move to Roma could open the doors for Cuadrado’s transfer to the Blues

Chelsea have loaned out unsettled winger Mohamed Salah to AS Roma in the Serie A, with it expected that this move will free up a squad spot that will allow them to step up their pursuit of Fiorentina winger Juan Cuadrado.

The six-month loan will see the London club receiving a fee of £550,000, with a fee of about £11 million to follow in the summer, which will see him move permanently. Real Sociedad were the other team interested in his signature, but Roma beat them to the deal, and will pay the winger’s wages during his stay at the club this season.

Salah moved to Chelsea in the January transfer window in 2014 for a fee of £11 million but has made only six starts for the club since then and has played only 30 minutes of League football so far this season. The Egyptian winger was signed by the Blues after his impressive performances for Basel, both in the Swiss league and the Champions League.

Dispute regarding Salah’s legal representation

The deal was negotiated despite there being a dispute over who represents the player legally. His former agent, Oliver Kronenberg, has written to the FA complaining that he was frozen out of the talks while the player has claimed that Kronenberg used to represent him earlier but doesn’t do so anymore.

Kronenberg, who now works for SPOCS sports consultants, and is the former legal head of FIFA, worked to get Salah to Chelsea and was the first to talk about Roma’s interest in him, when he mentioned it last week. However, Salah clarified on Twitter, saying, “Please don’t take any news from my ex-agent Oliver Kronenberg and don’t believe any of his word.”

Kronenberg declined to comment when approached, and SPOCS believe they still retain the rights to negotiate Salah’s deal till the end of this transfer window. They are looking to discuss this with the FA, indicating their belief that as many as three other agents negotiated on the behalf of the Egyptian. Pini Zahavi and Juan Figer have both denied any involvement, while the third, Cristina Marice, did not respond when the Guardian tried to contact her.

With Salah on the move, and Schurrle contemplating a transfer to Germany with Wolfsburg and Dortmund said to be interested, this could see Cuadrado’s release clause of £26.8 million being met by Chelsea, with the Colombian said to be keen on moving to the London club.