Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss could offer Roman Abramovich a route out of west London after he claimed to have been offered the chance to purchase the European champions.
The Russian has found himself in the spotlight after handing over "stewardship and care" of the club he's owned since 2003.
There is now a genuine belief that the Oligarch could sell up with Wyss the man touted as his buyer.
The 86-year-old made his fortunes in the medical market and would lead a consortium of "six or seven investors" if he were to purchase the club.
Chelsea remain an immensely attractive proposition given their London location and success over the past two decades.
They have also excelled despite Abramovich being largely absent, although he remains hugely influential despite not attending Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea, unlike a rival such as Manchester United, are also in a good place on the pitch with their youth academy finally bearing fruits in the first team meaning there is no need for a new owner to pour money in to the club.
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The state of play
“Abramovich is one of Putin's closest advisers and friends,” Wyss told Blick .
“Like all other oligarchs, he is also in a panic. Abramovich is trying to sell all his villas in England. He also wants to get rid of Chelsea quickly. I and three other people received an offer on Tuesday to buy Chelsea from Abramovich.
“I have to wait four to five days now. Abramovich is currently asking far too much. You know, Chelsea owe him £2 billion.
"But Chelsea have no money. Anyone who buys Chelsea must compensate Abramovich.
“As of today, we don't know the exact selling price. I can well imagine starting at Chelsea with partners. But I have to examine the general conditions first.
"But what I can already say is that I'm definitely not doing something like this alone. If I buy Chelsea, then with a consortium consisting of six to seven investors.”
A potential hurdle to any possible sale would be if Abramovich were sanctioned before the end of the week with other Oligarchs seeing their assets frozen, as was the case with Alisher Usmanov
Abramovich has previously turned down offers worth £2.2 billion for Chelsea whilst he is, according to the Telegraph, looking to sell his property in London.
So who is Hansjorg Wyss?
Never before has he shown any interest in investing in sport with much of his fortune going towards liberal and environmental projects in the USA.
Born in the Swiss capital of Bern in 1935, Wyss went on to received a master's degree in civil and structural engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich in 1959 before going then earning an MBA from Harvard six years later.
Whilst doing various ventures Wyss ran a side business selling planes and it was by doing so that he met a surgeon who had co-founded Synthes, a medical device manufacturer.
He founded and became president of Synthes USA in 1977 and the company is now the world's largest maker of implants to mend bone fractures.
Wyss was Synthes' worldwide CEO and chairman until his resignation as CEO in 2007, and was company chairman until Johnson & Johnson purchased the company in 2012.
When the Swiss business sold the company in 2012 he did so for $19.7billion in cash and stock.
He now holds stakes in publicly-traded biotech companies NovoCure and Molecular Partners.
Wyss has also been described as "among the most philanthropic people in the world" by Forbes.
In 2019, Wyss promised to donate 20 million francs to the Bern Art Museum based on the condition that the Hodlerstrasse, on which the museum is located, be free of cars.
The 86-year-old is last known to live in Wyoming USA and also owns a 900-acre ranch in Paso Robles, California.
As of March 2022 he is ranked 451 on Forbes' list of billionaires with a real time net worth of $5.1bn (£4.3bn).
