Antonio Rudiger accentuated that the chance of playing under boss Antonio Conte convinced him to make a switch to Chelsea.
The German defender joins the Blues from Seria A club AS for a transfer fee of £34.2million and has become Chelsea’s first major signing this summer.
He will wear the No 2 shirt, which was previously donned by Branislav Ivanovic, who joined Zenit St Petersburg in February.
The centre-back, 24, said: “For me the Premier League is the most challenging league in the world and Chelsea with Antonio Conte and his style of defending will be the next step forward for me.”
“When I heard of the offer of Chelsea I had to think about it and I realised that in life you never know if you’ll get a second chance.”
“Not every player has the opportunity to join a huge club like this.”
Rudiger started his footballing career at Dortmund in the youth circuit before joining Stuttgart in 2011 – where he went on to make 66 appearances in the Bundeliga.
He made a switch to Serie A side AS Roma in 2015 and made 56 appearances – out of which 26 of them were in the last season as the club finished second in the league behind Juventus.
Rudiger has also proved his mettle in the international circuit and has made 17 appearances.
But he could not feature in Germany’s Euro 2016 campaign after tearing cruciate knee ligaments, but he made a strong comeback this summer as they won the Confederations Cup.
Blues’ technical director Michael Emenalo added: “Antonio is still young but is experienced at club and international level and possesses all the requisite attributes to thrive in the Premier League.”
“We have been aware of him for some time and we are confident he will fit in well with the squad.”
Chelsea have so far struggled in the summer transfer window and Manchester City’s out-of-contract keeper Willy Caballero is the only other player that they have signed.
However, Blues boss is now looking forward to complete the signing of Monaco midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko from Ligue 1 champions AS Monaco.
