They have received plenty of criticism for it over the years, but Chelsea’s transfer strategy of investing heavily in young players has yielded some real stars in recent years.
The most obvious example is Cole Palmer, who was just 21 when he moved to Stamford Bridge and now has a tally of 73 goal involvements in 101 games for the club.
Even younger than the Englishman is Estevao, who, in just a couple of months, has already amassed a haul of five goal involvements for the club.
The conveyor belt of talent looks set to continue with Chelsea striking a pre-contract agreement with Ecuadorian wonderkid Deinner Ordonez, although he could be upstaged by another incredible prospect set to join up with Enzo Maresca and Co in the summer.
Who is Deinner Ordonez?
On Friday evening, seemingly out of nowhere, transfers expert Fabrizio Romano broke the news that Chelsea had reached an agreement to sign Ordonez, beating out three other top sides in the process.
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However, due to rules surrounding foreign players under the age of 18, the Ecuadorean gem won’t actually be joining the Blues until January 2028.
So why did the club go all out for someone so young?
Well, despite not even making his senior debut for Independiente del Valle, the promising defender has made quite the splash in the South American side’s youth system.
For example, he was promoted to the u17s when he was just 14 years old, and then at 15, after impressing for the u15s and u17s, he was promoted to Ecuador’s u20s.
He became the youngest player to represent the side at the South American U-20 Championship earlier this year and has now made four appearances for the team.
Como scout Felix Johnstone has described the youngster as “an absolute alien of a talent” who is “so good in the air” and someone who will “be one of the best CBs in the world.”
Likewise, analyst Ben Mattinson has described him as a “huge potential CB with physicality and athleticism way beyond his age.”
In all, while it is early, it certainly looks like Chelsea have a future superstar on their hand with Ordonez, although they also have another gem who’ll join up in the summer, someone who is an even bigger talent.
Chelsea's bigger star than Ordonez
The good news for Chelsea is that they have more than a few young talents on their way to Stamford Bridge in the summer, but the most exciting of all has to be Dastan Satpaev.
The Blues signed the incredibly exciting prospect from the Kazakhstani side Kairat Almaty in February of this year for a fee of around €4m, which is about £3.5m.
Yet, as he’s still just 17 years old, he is not allowed to join up with the club until next season, but spending an extra year in his homeland might’ve been the best thing for him anyway.
After all, he has played far more senior football than he ever would’ve in England, but he’s not just making up the numbers for his side; he’s one of their leading figures.
For example, the dynamic game-changing forward made 29 first-team appearances last season, totalling 2081 minutes, in which he scored 15 goals and provided seven assists.
Appearances
29
Starts
21
Minutes
2081
Goals
15
Assists
7
Goal Involvements per Match
0.75
Minutes per Goal Involvement
94.59′
That works out to an average of a goal involvement every 1.31 games, or every 94.59 minutes, which is a truly sensational rate of return for anyone, let alone a 17-year-old and helps lend credence to one analyst who has described him as “a future Ballon d’Or winner.”
As if that wasn’t impressive enough, he has also made 11 appearances in the Champions League this season, seven of which were in the qualifying rounds and the other four in the competition proper.
He also played the full 90 away to Inter Milan, and while he came out on the wrong side of a 2-1 defeat, he didn’t look out of place against last season’s finalists.
Ultimately, it’s notoriously difficult to predict the future of young players, but Chelsea look like they have a handful of hugely promising ones, with Satpaev being the most exciting of all.
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