Liam Delap wears the No 9 shirt in Chelsea after completing a transmission of £ 30 million to Stamford Bridge from Ipswich.
The 22-year-old, who became the second signing of Enzo Maresca of the summer after Dario Essugo, will be the 18th man who carries the sweater while the blues are preparing for life in the Champions League next season.
The two clubs came to an agreement on Delap last week and after having held a medical pen on paper about a long-term contract in West-London on Wednesday.
The blues have now confirmed that Delap assumes no. 9 sweater, which has proven to be rather unhappy over the years for a succession of Chelsea strikers. The last player who was wearing the 'cursed' strip was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who inherited him for a short period in 2023.
It was Romelu Lukaku's sweater, who in 2021 joined the side in a £ 98 million deal.
The Belgian moved to Naples for £ 30 million last summer, three years after it at the Blues of Inter Milan. His return to Stamford Bridge turned out to be disastrous, because after a positive start he got out of grace and spent successive seasons on loan by Inter and Roma in Italy.
Lukaku insured a permanent exit in August after being forced to train with Chelsea's bomb team during the preseason, an experience he had also undergone in the previous summer.