FORMER Chelsea defender Tariq Lamptey has had his contract terminated by Serie A side Fiorentina after playing just 25 minutes for the club.
Lamptey, 25, arrived in Florence just last summer, in a deal worth around £5million after leaving Brighton.
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Lamptey in action for Fiorentina vs Napoli Credit: Getty
He played just three games for Chelsea Credit: Getty
He joined Chelsea‘s Cobham academy at the age of eight, and stayed with the Blues until he was 19, making his debut appearance against Arsenal in December 2019.
He was the seventh Cobham product to benefit from Frank Lampard being in charge of the club during a transfer ban, but he only made two more appearances for Chelsea in the FA Cup.
He joined Brighton on deadline day, just over a month later, after rejecting a new contract at Stamford Bridge.
And went on to make 122 appearances for the Seagulls, in a spell in which he was occasionally bothered by injury problems that seem to have followed him to Italy.
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The Ghanaian international represented England from the U18 level to the U21S.
He has managed just TWO appearances for Fiorentina, though, after suffering another devastating setback in Italy.
His debut against Napoli lasted only four minutes after coming off the bench in defeat.
And things went from bad to worse weeks later when Lamptey ruptured his ACL just 21 minutes into his first start against Como 1907, managed by former Chelsea star Cesc Fabregas.
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Those two appearances saw him rack up just 25 minutes in the iconic purple of the Florence-based giants.
And the club have now agreed to mutually terminate his contract, after he signed a three-year deal last season.
He will be a free agent when the summer transfer window opens on June 15th.
But any club signing him will be aware that while 95% of players return from ACL injuries, only 50% return to their former level.
Lamptey played with some top Premier League players in Chelsea’s Cobham setup
