Chelsea Transfer Target: Chilean Eduardo Vargas, the Next Alexis Sanchez

It has recently been reported that a delegate of Chelsea FC has traveled to Santiago, Chile, to wrap up a deal for Eduardo Vargas, one of the more sought-after football talents in South America.

Chelsea hope to beat a host of European clubs who hope to jump on the renaissance that is Chilean football.

This summer two of the bigger transfers in Europe involved Chileans, as Barcelona paid €27m for Udinese's 22-year-old Alexis Sanchez and Juventus signed 24-year-old Arturo Vidal for €11m. The latter was an expensive purchase when you consider the former Bayer Leverkusen midfielder had just one year left on his contract.

Vargas is seen as the next big star to venture into European football and has already been compared to Alexis Sanchez by a host of European scouts and journalists.

From my experience watching him, specifically during the Copa Sudamericana, a different comparison emerged. That was where his goals have led his club, Universidad de Chile, to the final, where they will play LDU Quito.

Certainly the attribute you immediately observe, even from the smallest sample size with Vargas, is his soft feet inside the penalty area, much like Manchester United's Javier Hernandez. The Chile international can manipulate the ball in tight areas and be off-balance yet produce truly outstanding finishes.

Vargas started his career with the Calama side Cobreloa in northern Chile before he was snapped up by the capital side Universidad for €1m last year as a 20-year-old.

Vargas has come to life during the 2011 Clausura championship, scoring six goals domestically to help his side to the top of the league in the regular season; coincidentally their nearest rivals, eight points back, are his youth team, Cobreloa.

Vargas has flourished most in the Sudamericana with eight goals in 10 games in his side's journey to the final, during which they notably defeated Brazilian giants Flamengo.

Vargas seems to have more to his game though than the aforementioned Hernandez, and this is where the Sanchez comparison holds some water at least. Vargas is able to find his teammates with precision passes as he tends to open up deep-lying defences with flicks and back heels in and around the penalty area, contributing 13 assists in 33 games in the last campaign (2010/11).

Furthermore he has quick feet and close control, as shown against Spain in a recent friendly, often positioning his body in between the ball and the defender.

Chelsea will have to move fast though, as Napoli, Valencia and Russian clubs CSKA Moscow and Zenit St Petersburg also supposedly in pursuit.

The Chelsea delegate is said to have negotiated a figured of €9.7m, with 35 percent going to his previous club, Cobreloa, and €2.2m going to agents, leaving Universidad with just over €4m.

The ideal scenario for the Blues is to loan the Chile forward out to a Primera Division side in Spain or a fellow Premier League side before recalling him in a year's time.

In the meantime Vargas is in the running for the South American player of the year with the Santos duo of Neymar and Paulo Henrique Ganso, former Penarol and now Fluminense trequartista Alejandro Martinuccio and Egidio Arévalo Ríos (now with Tijuana).