Bertrand Traore
Bertrand Tarore in action for Chelsea during pre-season. [Twitter]

Chelsea have confirmed that they have finally agreed a four-and-a-half year deal with highly-rated attacking midfielder Bertrand Traore.

The 18-year-old was handed a trial with the west London club earlier this year and duly impressed on the summer tour of Asia where he played in all three games, scoring in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Traore is already a full international having made his debut back in September 2011 just a few days before his 16<sup>th birthday.

He made one substitute appearance at last summer's Africa Cup of Nations and now has 10 international caps to his name, scoring one goal.

The new Chelsea signing will be hoping he can help Burkina Faso qualify for the World Cup when they play Algeria in a play-off game next month.

Traore will likely play the majority of his football in the Chelsea youth teams but first team boss Jose Mourinho did admit in his weekly press conference that the attacking midfielder is "ready to make an impact".

Mourinho also went on to describe the teenager as a "great talent with a bright future", comments that are sure to get the Chelsea fans excited.

The Blues have struggled to bring through young players in recent season, with only Ryan Bertrand and Nathan Ake making the step up to the first team.

However, Chelsea's youth sides have excelled and last season they made the final of the FA Youth Cup and the NextGen series.

Traore, who joins from Association Jeunes Espoirs De Bobo-Dioulass, may well start his Chelsea career representing the Under-21 side but should he excel then it may not be long before he is handed an opportunity to impress in the first team.