Kurt Zouma’s seven-and-a-half year Chelsea career is at an end after the defender completed a permanent move to West Ham United.
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West Ham United have announced the signing of France international Kurt Zouma until the summer of 2025. The 26-year-old central defender joins for an undisclosed fee from Chelsea. Zouma accumulated two Premier League titles, one UEFA Champions’ League winner’s medal and one EFL Cup winner’s medal during a seven-year career at the club. The defender currently holds eight full international caps with France, having progressed through all junior levels with the national team since the Under-16 age group. He will join up with Didier Deschamps’s squad for their World Cup qualifiers against Bosnia, Ukraine and Finland this week.
“I’m very happy and very proud. My conversation with the manager went very fast. I just felt like he really wanted me to come and join the team, especially a good team that’s started the season very, very well,” said Zouma after signing for West Ham.
“With the great season that West Ham had last year, that gave the team a lot of confidence to improve this year – and I want to help the team do that,” he added.
The defender is a prodigious talent who boasts great pace, strength, technical proficiency and the experience of 165 Premier League and 27 top-level European appearances. Zouma further strengthens manager David Moyes’ West Ham team ahead of their first-ever venture into the Europa League group stages. The prodigious talent boasts great pace, strength, technical proficiency and the experience of 165 Premier League and 27 top-level European appearances.
Moyes hailed Zouma as a player he had been tracking for some time.
“I am delighted to welcome Kurt to West Ham United. He is a player we have tracked for some time, and we have taken great care and diligence to make the transfer happen. He was always our first choice and I am very happy that he is now our player. Kurt will join a squad full of players who are hungry and ambitious. He will provide competition to our squad. He is a strong, powerful player with great experience in the Premier League while he is also at a good age for a centre-back,” said the former Manchester United manager.
“Kurt has enjoyed great success at Chelsea and I can see that he is determined to continue being successful here at the London Stadium. Myself, the coaching staff and players are all looking forward to working with him and we wish him all the very best in his career with us,” he added.
Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia expressed her thankfulness to Zouma for the years spent at the club, wishing him the very best for the future.
“Kurt Zouma joined us as a young player and has been a part of so many important moments for this club over the past seven-and-a-half years. He showed incredible strength of character to return from a very serious injury in 2016, and he has always been an extremely popular character in the dressing room. We thank him for his contribution on and off the pitch for Chelsea, and wish him the very best in the next stage of his career,” she stated.
