According to The Athletic's report, Chelsea believe that the Bundesliga loan experience has not diminished Jackson's value. Due to Jackson's significant improvement in recent years and the remaining seven years on his contract, Chelsea values Jackson at £60 million.
The report states that Nicolas Jackson is facing an unknown summer for the second consecutive year and will enter the transfer window with an uncertain future. His destination for next season remains undecided.
Jackson spent this season on loan at Bayern Munich, a deal finalized on the September 1st transfer deadline day. After the loan period, he will first return to Chelsea. The Athletic reported in September that Chelsea and Bayern Munich reached a loan agreement with a loan fee of 16.5 million euros; the contract also included a mandatory buyout clause : provided certain conditions are met, Bayern Munich must permanently sign him for 65 million euros after the 2025-26 season.
Earlier this week, Bayern Munich sporting director Eberl officially confirmed that the club will not activate this buyout clause. This result was expected. As early as Jackson's joining Bayern Munich only two weeks prior, Bayern Munich honorary president Hoeness stated bluntly that the buyout conditions were almost impossible to achieve: the clause required the player to start 40 games in a single season, excluding the German Cup.
This means Jackson could only rely on Bundesliga and Champions League matches to accumulate enough appearances, and also had to compete with Harry Kane for the starting center forward position. Ultimately, he fell far short of the target: he only started 13 games in the Bundesliga + Champions League this season, with a total playing time of 1151 minutes. Playing in the Africa Cup of Nations with Senegal at the beginning of the year was also an important reason for his insufficient appearances.
In contrast, Jackson played 37 games for Chelsea last season, accumulating 2535 minutes. Even though he suffered a long-term absence due to a hamstring injury and was suspended twice for red cards, his appearance data was still far more than this season.
Seven months ago, during the Champions League group stage matches between the two teams, The Athletic revealed that Jackson's team was privately certain that the transfer would eventually materialize, even if the terms needed to be renegotiated. But now the situation has completely reversed.
From the perspective of on-field performance, Jackson was not bad at Bayern Munich. He contributed 10 goals and 4 assists in 29 appearances for the team, directly participating in a goal on average every two games, which is fully qualified as a substitute forward. Kane has been in excellent form this season, scoring 54 goals and rarely getting injured, firmly locking in the starting center forward position, so Jackson naturally struggled to get stable starts; in addition, with Luis Diaz's presence, the chances of playing as a left winger were also very limited.
In March this year, after Bayern Munich's 4-1 victory over Borussia Mönchengladbach, coach Kompany publicly defended Jackson . Faced with external criticism of the player, Kompany said: "I found that when I came to the team, whenever the team as a whole ran smoothly, there would always be people who targeted individual players for no reason. Last season it was Gnabry and Coman, and now it's Jackson's turn. The locker room atmosphere is very peaceful. Jackson is training well and has perfectly demonstrated his ability today. When your positional competitors are Harry Kane, Olise, and Diaz, limited playing time is inevitable, that's all. He played very well today and I hope he can continue his form in the future."
A week later, when Kane was injured and missed the first leg of the Champions League Round of 16 against Atalanta, Jackson was entrusted with a crucial task, contributing one goal and one assist to help the team win 6-1. However, just four days later, in the game against Leverkusen, he was sent off for a reckless foul and received a two-game suspension, becoming the only obvious stain on his season.
Apart from this impulsive mistake, Bayern Munich fans are generally satisfied with Jackson's loan performance. Now Bayern Munich must find a substitute forward for Kane again, but the club would rather find someone else than spend 65 million euros to buy out Jackson.
Chelsea, on the other hand, believe that the Bundesliga loan experience has not diminished the player's value. According to The Athletic's anonymous sources, Chelsea still values Jackson at up to £60 million. The high price tag is not without reason: in 2023, Chelsea spent more than 35 million euros to sign Jackson from Villarreal. After being honed in the Premier League and Bundesliga, he has made significant progress, and his current contract still has seven years to run. During his time at Chelsea, Jackson scored 30 goals and provided 12 assists in 81 games in all competitions, without a single penalty goal, and won the 2025 Europa Conference League and Club World Cup with the team.
At the national team level, he has played 31 games for Senegal, helping the team reach the final of this year's Africa Cup of Nations, once defeating Morocco 1-0, but the final result of the event was full of twists and turns.
In terms of club honors, Jackson has already secured the Bundesliga title with Bayern Munich, and still has the opportunity to compete for the German Cup and Champions League double, winning multiple trophies.
Looking at the transfer market, quality forwards are scarce and expensive. Manchester United signed Šeško last year for an initial transfer fee of 76.5 million euros, and Arsenal spent 63.5 million euros plus 10 million floating clauses to finalize Gyokeres.
Chelsea are likely to miss out on the Champions League next season, and their event income will be sharply reduced. Selling high-priced players like Jackson will replenish key funds for the team's signings.
However, the Blues have not made a final decision. The club is currently selecting a new coach, and the future of all players will be put on hold. Major transfer operations will wait until the new coach takes office before a unified decision is made.
Bournemouth's former coach Iraola is on Chelsea's new coach candidate list, and he already hoped to sign Jackson in January 2023. This means that many potential new coaches, including Iraola, may want to keep Jackson in the team.
Although Chelsea fans often criticize his inconsistent finishing ability, the team has always lacked his impact. The club initially spent £30 million to sign Delap from Ipswich to replace him, but the new signing only scored 3 goals in 43 games, a dismal performance.
In the 2025-26 season, Palmer's form was poor due to a groin injury. In the past, he and Jackson had a tacit understanding, creating opportunities for each other 15 times in 75 games, completing a connection pass on average every five games.
At this stage, Chelsea's new core forward, João Pedro, is performing brilliantly, becoming the team's top scorer with 19 goals. At the same time, the club reached an agreement with Strasbourg as early as last September to finalize the signing of rising star Emega this summer, further releasing the signal that they intend to send Jackson away.
Chelsea does not rule out loaning Jackson out again, perhaps with a buyout option, but this is currently only a backup plan. Previously, the Sky Sports Germany reported that Juventus is watching Jackson and considering introducing him on loan. AC Milan is also following the situation. British media talkSPORT also said that Jackson is a target for Newcastle.
In the summer of 2025, Jackson's future was the focus of Chelsea's football discussion; now history is repeating itself, and the Senegalese forward is once again standing at the crossroads of fate.