Bournemouth defender sales to reach £147m as Zabarnyi nears PSG move

Bournemouth defender Illia Zabarnyi is set to have a medical before a £57.1m move to Paris St-Germain.

The Ukraine centre-back is in Paris having agreed personal terms on a five-year contract with the European champions.

The clubs are however still negotiating the final details of the 22-year-old’s during transfer, which is expected to be worth an initial £54.5m plus £2.6m in performance-related add-ons.

Zabarnyi’s exit would be the third major sale of a defender by Bournemouth this transfer window after Dean Huijsen joined Real Madrid for £50m and Liverpool signed Milos Kerkez in a deal worth £40m.

While the Cherries must rebuild their defence as a result, they are set to make a healthy profit on the trio.

Zabarnyi joined Bournemouth in 2023 from Dynamo Kyiv for a reported £24m, while Hujsen was signed from Juventus last summer for a fee of £12.6m and Kerkez cost a reported £15.5m from AZ Alkmaar.

Bournemouth expected at least one defender to be sold this summer but to lose three has been a shock, according to sources inside the club.

Each move has been difficult to turn down, though, with such high fees on offer from three of the world’s biggest clubs.

But the lengthy negotiations with PSG have shown Bournemouth have been doing deals on their terms, albeit with an acceptance each player has wanted to take the next step in their career.

The Cherries, who more than tripled the £12.8m paid to sign Huijsen from Juventus six months earlier, did not expect his £50m release clause to be seen as value for money by suitors within a year.

Real Madrid won the race but Huijsen attracted a lot of other interest – including from Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea – after a brilliant season at Vitality Stadium.

Diakite fills one of the gaps at centre-back and £14.4m Frenchman Adrien Truffert has been signed to fill the Kerkez hole – and a further central defender is being sought.

Meanwhile, goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic has replaced Kepa Arrizabalaga – who opted to join Arsenal from Chelsea instead of Bournemouth – and they also signed teenage forward Eli Junior Kroupi in February.