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Asmir Begovic today completed his £8m move from Stoke to Chelsea and is confident he will play a key role at Stamford Bridge after being reassured by manager Jose Mourinho.
The Bosnia international keeper is the new back-up to Thibaut Courtois following the departure of Petr Cech to Arsenal earlier this month, although, he will be handed the No1 shirt vacated by Cech because Courtois has opted to keep the No13 jersey worn last season.
Begovic has agreed a four-year contract worth £75,000-a-week and will crucially count as a home-grown player for Chelsea in their Premier League and Champions League squads because of rules regarding association trained players - he was a youth player at Portsmouth.
The 28-year-old is convinced he's made the right decision in joining the champions and said: "I am very happy to be joining Chelsea FC. After speaking at length to the manager, I feel like I can develop here and be an important part of this team.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">.<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/ChelseaFC" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-6306-https://twitter.com/ChelseaFC" data-vars-event-id="c23">@ChelseaFC</a> is delighted to announce the signing of Asmir Begovic from Stoke City... <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?mid=9&id=222025&p=http://t.co/KkMOeBzIWk" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-6306-http://t.co/KkMOeBzIWk" data-vars-event-id="c23">http://t.co/KkMOeBzIWk</a> <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?mid=9&id=222025&p=http://t.co/g2bPjRn770" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-6306-http://t.co/g2bPjRn770" data-vars-event-id="c23">pic.twitter.com/g2bPjRn770</a>— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/ChelseaFC/status/620549223822565376" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-6306-https://twitter.com/ChelseaFC/status/620549223822565376" data-vars-event-id="c23">July 13, 2015</a>
"I am looking forward to meeting up with the team on Wednesday for the pre-season tour (to the USA)."
Chelsea have been huge admirers of Begovic for some time and tried to sign him from Stoke back in 2010.
They had an initial offer of £6m rejected earlier this month, but then agreed to up their bid by another £2m last week, as well as including Marco van Ginkel going the other way on a season-long loan.
