Strasbourg have signed the Real Madrid forward Jacobo Ortega on a five-year contract, continuing an active summer of transfer business for the Ligue 1 club and their BlueCo ownership group, who also own Chelsea.
The move is understood to be worth around €10m ($11.6m) and follows Strasbourg's need to replace the Paraguay forward Julio Enciso, who has left for newly promoted Ipswich Town, where he previously had a loan spell two seasons ago during their last spell in the Premier League. Ipswich have also signed the Strasbourg midfielder Abdoul Ouattara, with the two departures together reported to be worth around €50m ($58m) combined; both players have signed five-year deals and reunite with Ipswich manager Gary O'Neil, who was in charge of Strasbourg for the second half of last season.
Strasbourg, whose spending under BlueCo has drawn Uefa scrutiny, were fined €13m in June for breaching the governing body's squad cost rules, the largest such penalty imposed on any club last season. The club's summer trading, which has also included selling captain Emmanuel Emegha and the Argentina midfielder Valentín Barco to Chelsea and signing the United States midfielder Giovanni Reyna from Borussia Mönchengladbach, has left them with a transfer profit of around €80m ($92m) after Uefa advised them to significantly reduce player costs.
Ortega, 20, never played for Real Madrid's first team but scored in last season's Uefa Youth League final, effectively the Champions League for Under-19 sides, as Madrid beat Club Brugge on penalties after a 1-1 draw in Lausanne. Real Madrid did not provide further details of the departure.