Chelsea have confirmed goalkeeper Gabriel Slonina has joined League One outfit Barnsley on loan for the 2024/2025 season.
The 20-year-old joined the Blues back in 2022 from MLS side Chicago Fire for £12m and spent last season on loan at Belgian side KAS Eupen.
Slonina was part of the United States squad at the Olympics but didn’t feature in Paris and he’s now set to continue his development away from Chelsea.
Slonina joins Barnsley on loan
The Blues have signed a number of players this summer with Samu Omorodion and Pedro Neto set to complete their moves to the club before the season starts.
However, Chelsea have a number of players they need to offload whether on a permanent basis or on loan and progress on outgoings has been much slower.
The club face the tricky task of deciding which players should take the limited number of international loan spots and then sourcing domestic loans where players are going to get enough game time in order to develop.
Slonina’s move to the English third tier means Chelsea now have one less goalkeeper in the squad for the upcoming season and should give him a good introduction to English football.
The American made 34 appearances for KAS Eupen last season but could only manage five clean sheets and conceded 65 goals.
Chelsea believe Slonina has great potential and he’s still very young, but quite what their plan for him is remains to be seen and they have just agreed a deal to sign 19-year-old keeper Mike Penders from Belgian side Genk for €20m with the teenager set to spend the upcoming season back on loan in Belgium.
Slonina isn’t the only goalkeeper the Blues are looking to move on this summer with the club trying to find a new home for Kepa Arrizabalaga, whilst Djordje Petrovic is also expected to leave after just one season and has been linked with a possible loan move to Strasbourg.
Good for slonina development , he will experience English league games . He be soon number 2 Chelsea FC keeper . If I were Chelsea FC , I will buy or ask for cancelo availability for loan . His experience will help Chelsea FC for winning the tournament EPL . He can play DCM .