Christian Atsu has joined Malaga on loan until the end of the season, Chelsea have confirmed.
The Ghanaian winger had flown to Spain to hold talks with Malaga, Levante and Rayo Vallecano as the three La Liga clubs battled to acquire him for the rest of the campaign, sources had told ESPN FC.
And Chelsea have now announced that Malaga, who are 12th in the table after 21 matches, have seen off the competition to sign Atsu on a temporary basis.
Atsu returned to Chelsea earlier this month after a lack of first-team opportunities and a stress fracture in his back forced the 24-year-old to cut short a frustrating spell at Bournemouth, where he failed to make a single Premier League appearance.
Today I signed on loan with Málaga CF until the end of the season. I can't wait to play for the team #Godisthereason pic.twitter.com/u43IsgS5Rr
- Christian Atsu (@ChristianAtsu20) January 25, 2016
Chelsea interim manager Guus Hiddink initially indicated that he was impressed with Atsu's performance in training, but on Friday the Dutchman revealed that he had encouraged the winger to go on loan again.
"I think Atsu is the same as with Papy [Djilobodji]," Hiddink insisted. "Players who don't have much of an option to play at Chelsea must get the experience of playing weekly [elsewhere].
"I cannot say much more than this. He is not a young player, he is 24 and such guys need to play."