Chelsea have confirmed the sale of young winger Diego Moreira to sister club Strasbourg.
Snapped up on a free from Benfica’s B team a year ago, Moreira had a brief loan to Lyon last season before returning in January to spend the second half of the season with the Under-21s.
Now he’s gone to affiliate club Strasbourg permanently, ticking another player with an uncertain future off the list as our battle to bring down the size of the squad continues. He joins Liam Rosenior’s team with the genuine chance to play regularly in Ligue 1 and go to the next level in his career.
The first rumours earlier in the week had some bizarre claims that it would be a loan move – but that was the opposite of what the Blues wanted. That would have taken up one of their precious few remaining loan slots, this was they get Moreira off the books (and helping out an associated team) without making any such sacrifice.
Moreira’s future
It was pretty clear to us even from just speaking to Benfica fans when we signed Moreira that he had little to no chance of ever developing into a first team player at Chelsea. We hope that Strasbourg is closer to his level, and that playing regularly can help him have great success in his career. The £1.7m we get for him is pretty pitiful return for developing him for a year – but if his good play keeps Strasbourg up, it will all be worth it.
The buy-back clause in the deal means that even if we don’t want to keep him long term, we can potentially make more money by buying him back and selling him on again.
Already at Strasbourg are Andrey Santos and Caleb Wiley – and Djordje Petrovic is rumoured to be joining them soon.
