According to the Daily Star, Viitorul ConstanÈ›a’s CEO has announced that their Romanian teenager, Cristian Manea has been signed by Chelsea.
Manea is 17-years-old and is one of the highest rated youngsters that plays their trade in the top flight of Romanian football. In May 2014, the youngster became the country’s youngest ever player to represent their nation when he played 90 minutes against Albania in 2014.
The Daily Mail reported in March that the West London club had agreed a deal for the right-back, with the price valued at around £2.3m The paper had also linked Manea with a move to Arsenal, Ajax and Udinese.
But, according to the Star, the deal now sits at £2.2m
Manea will come to Chelsea and mix in with the very highly-rated youngsters we have, that have broken into the first team from last year. This includes the likes of Kurt Zouma and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, with the former completing 257 passes in 15 games last season.
The Roman journalist who reported that the Club’s CEO had confirmed the deal had this to say regarding to starlet:
Viitorul’s CEO confirmed Manea’s move to Chelsea and Ianis Hagi’s leave for Fiorentina. What a good player Chelsea bought. Cristi Manea is a fantastic talent. Can play at right-back, centre-back and defensive midfielder. Very smart, very good with the ball.
Since 2013, Manea has featured 34 times for Vitorul – scoring twice. He has only featured for Romania once, but has also represented the European nation at nder-17, under-19 and under-21 level.
