Chelsea midfielder admits “I can’t lie – one day I’d like to play in Paris”

Tiemoue Bakayoko

The former Monaco player spent the 2018/19 campaign on loan at AC Milan but will return to Stamford Bridge this summer, with the Italians looking unlikely to take up their option to make the move permanent.

When asked about his future, the Parisian said he would love to join his hometown club. 

“Yes, for sure, one day I would like to play in Paris," he told L'Equipe.

"I cannot lie about it. It’s big for me and my loved ones. We are real Parisians.”

However, Bakayoko still has three years remaining on his Blues deal, and is in no doubt about what the immediate future holds.

“I will go back to Chelsea,” he said. “I still have a three-year contract.

"I have no choice. I don't know what will happen after that but I have to go back to Chelsea. It is the only thing I know."

Bakayoko became a regular in the Milan midfield last season under Gennaro Gattuso, but had a fiery relationship with the coach.

"I had difficult moments [at Milan], especially at the start," he said.

"I'm sad to go away but this is life. Gattuso? I had a complicated relationship with him, we didn't understand each other. I don't really want to talk about him.

"It is difficult to hear certain things, especially when they are false. It didn't go the way it was told but we know the current world, a piece of news is enough to analyse the situation."  

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Alasdair Mackenzie is a freelance journalist based in Rome, and a FourFourTwo contributor since 2015. When not pulling on the FFT shirt, he can be found at Reuters, The Times and the i. An Italophile since growing up on a diet of Football Italia on Channel 4, he now counts himself among thousands of fans sharing a passion for Ross County and Lazio.