Fabrizio Romano reveals that Chelsea unsuccessfully tried to sign Endrick last November. (Photo by Alexandre Schneider/Getty Images)
According to David Ornstein of The Athletic (subscription required), the two key reasons behind why the Brazilian wonderkid Endrick snubbed Chelsea in favour of a move to Real Madrid have been revealed.
A few days ago, after continuous reports about the player’s future, the European champions struck an agreement with the 16-year-old to make him their player in the summer of 2024, once he turns 18 for a deal worth around €60m plus €12m on add-ons.
Before that, Chelsea were leading the race to sign the striker. Metro reported that the Blues invited his parents and representatives to the Cobham training ground to show them around and also meet Brazil legend Thiago Silva. Paris Saint-Germain were also in the race, but Madrid won the battle in the end.
One of the key reasons behind the snub was hesitation from Chelsea in committing to the financial terms, with most of the elements in the deal being performance-related.
The other reason was the timing of this deal, as the club’s new regime has made a number of changes in the recruitment operation and they are still in the process of doing that.
Madrid also had an advantage by having their Brazilian sporting director Juni Calafat. He has had the experience of signing young players like Rodrygo, Vinicius Jr and Federico Valverde from Brazil and Uruguay respectively. Endrick is now on that illustrious list.
Missing out on the striker would be a blow to Chelsea because of how close they were to sign a player who has been touted to be one of the best in the world very soon.
But, nothing can be done now. We will have to concentrate on getting other deals in order to improve the quality of our senior and youth squads.
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