Chelsea have ended speculation over the future of Gaël Kakuta by announcing that the forward has signed a new four-and-a-half‑year deal at the club.

Kakuta, who joined Chelsea in the summer of 2007 after a legal wrangle with his former club Lens, was due to be out of contract at the end of the season and had been linked with a move away from Stamford Bridge, but he has now committed himself to the club until 2015.

Chelsea were given a two-year transfer ban in September 2009 after being found guilty of inducing Kakuta to break his contract with Lens, but that ban was lifted and the club were cleared of any wrongdoing after the court of arbitration for sport ruled that the forward's deal with the French club was not valid.

Chelsea's injury problems and the loss of Joe Cole, Michael Ballack and Deco over the summer have meant the 19-year-old has been deployed nine times by Carlo Ancelotti this season. The Chelsea manager has earmarked Kakuta, Jeffrey Bruma and Josh McEachran as the future of the club and the Lille-born hopeful is glad to have agreed a new deal.

"Since I signed for Chelsea when I was 16 all I was thinking about was to get to the first team," Kakuta told Chelsea's website. "Now I have been playing a few times with the first team and I have signed for four and a half more years, I have to make a way for myself into the starting 11 and make my dream come true.

"The manager said to me it is the right time to play and I think for me it is as well. It's my job to do my best and try to play more often and show the coach that I am good enough to play in the team."

Kakuta has featured in five of Chelsea's Champions League games so far and is keen to help the Blues' attempts to achieve success both in Europe and domestically, where they have dropped to fourth after a poor run of results.

Kakuta said: "It is a dream when you are young to play in the Champions League and I hope I will play more games. It is always good to play with players with more experience, you learn quicker and to improve quicker is good for our development."