Sporting have confirmed an agreement with Chelsea for the transfers of Geovany Quenda and Dario Essugo.
Chelsea could pay up to £41.9m for Quenda, who turns 18 in April, after moving swiftly to secure the future of the winger, who was attracting interest from Manchester United.
Quenda broke into the Sporting first team under United boss Ruben Amorim this season and will stay with the Portuguese club until 2026.
Essugo, a 20-year-old defensive midfielder currently on loan with Las Palmas in LaLiga, is set to cost £18.5m. He will join Chelsea this summer.
Quenda, who has played as a winger and wing-back for Sporting, is expected to sign a seven-year deal with an option for an additional 12 months and has already passed his medical.
The teenager is understood to have chosen Chelsea amid interest from a number of other clubs and liked the fact they wanted to give him time to mature and grow as a player.
Essugo has also already had his medical and it is understood Chelsea view him as a ball winner that will get regular minutes under Enzo Maresca and add depth to their squad.
He became Sporting’s youngest player when he made his first-team debut a week after turning 16 in 2021.
Why Chelsea snapped up ‘Saka-like’ Quenda
Naturally a winger, it is easy to reach for Lamine Yamal, also left-footed, when searching for a similar profile to Geovany Quenda. The Barcelona forward was also born in 2007.
“I understand the comparison, but Geo covers so much more space,” Fabio Roque, Quenda’s youth coach at Sporting, told Sky Sports as part of the Next Up series.
“Geo is so demanding with himself in the defensive moments. To close, to recover fast, to win the defensive duels for his team-mates. It reminds me of Bukayo Saka in the beginning of his career when he played as a full-back.”
The Arsenal forward, Roque says, is the most accurate comparison for Quenda. But he makes clear this does not tell the whole story of the teenager’s potential.
“There is only one Geovany Quenda,” says Roque. “He is different from any other player I trained. He can create a mark on football that is totally different.
“We are talking about, with Lamine Yamal and Estevao Willian [set to join Chelsea in the summer of 2025], probably the best players in that generation born in 2007.”
2025-03-19 22:30:00
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