Antonio Rudiger has put his decision to leave Chelsea down to talks over a new contract going silent for five months.
The 29-year-old will leave the club for free to join Real Madrid when the summer transfer window opens and his current deal at Stamford Bridge expires, having signed a pre-contract agreement. Rudiger is understood to have rejected the Blues' first offer of £140,000 per week almost a year ago and has claimed that he was then left in the dark about his future during the autumn.
"Unfortunately, my contract negotiations had already started to get difficult last fall," the Germany international, who is said to earn £100,000 per week at present, explained in a piece for the Players' Tribune. "Business is business, but when you don't hear any news from the club from August to January, the situation becomes complicated. After the first offer, there was a long gap of just nothing."
