Latest news with #Quenda
The Guardian
05-04-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Maresca's Chelsea stay on front foot with no slowing of revolving doors
The promise of a better tomorrow at Chelsea divides opinion. While some predict disaster, others look on with fascination. Speaking to an analyst at a Premier League club last week, the feedback was glowing when the conversation turned to Chelsea beating Manchester United to the £44m signing of Sporting's 17-year-old winger Geovany Quenda. Good players are heading to Stamford Bridge. The question is less whether Chelsea have an eye for talent, more whether they can put the pieces of the puzzle together. They are not deviating from their chosen path. There is a sense that Chelsea, aware of the mockery about all the seven-year contracts, are waiting for the moment when they can silence the critics. They have faith their process will come off. Quenda, who will remain at Sporting next season on loan, has been called up by Portugal. Dário Essugo, a combative 20-year-old midfielder due to join from Sporting for £18.4m at the end of the season, was coveted by other English teams. Andrey Santos, the 20-year-old Brazilian midfielder, has been exceptional on loan at Strasbourg this season. Estêvão and Kendry Páez, two of the best youngsters in South America, are on the way. Chelsea, whose summer will be complicated by their money-spinning involvement in the Club World Cup, are on the front foot. They want their business done quickly and are targeting key positions. A new striker is a must – Ipswich's Liam Delap and RB Leipzig's Benjamin Sesko are prominent targets – and there is firm interest in the Bournemouth centre-back Dean Huijsen. This could turn into a team of superstars. An underlying tension is whether supporters are willing to wait. Talk of a brighter future is all well and good, but what about today? It is three years since the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital takeover and this has been another uncertain season on and off the pitch. Champions League qualification remains achievable but is far from guaranteed. Enzo Maresca will be under pressure if his first campaign ends with Chelsea yet to rejoin Europe's elite. It does not always seem like the most stable of environments. The player trading is relentless. Spotting potential is one thing but honing it and ensuring that youngsters can learn from experienced professionals is a different challenge. The boardroom, meanwhile, remains a suspicious place. One theory is that Boehly was forming an exit strategy when he used an interview with Bloomberg last month to suggest that divisions over stadium redevelopment could lead to a split in his uneasy relationship with Clearlake. Talks over leaving Stamford Bridge and moving to Earl's Court have continued but a consensus is not in the offing. Clearlake, the club's majority shareholder, is exploring all options. Others want action. The risk is that Chelsea run out of time to secure the Earl's Court site. A deal could become more politically and financially challenging if the Earl's Court Development Company's plan for the land receives planning approval later this year. Whatever happens will have a significant impact on Chelsea's long-term prospects. Stamford Bridge's capacity of 40,343 is too small. An expanded multi-use stadium is imperative if Chelsea are to increase their revenue and continue to compete with their rivals. Questions around money have perplexed financial commentators during the Boehly and Clearlake era. There has been a drive to lower the wage bill but more than £1bn has been spent on signings. Huge losses have been offset by finding loopholes in the Premier League's profitability and sustainability rules. This week it emerged that selling their women's team to themselves had helped Chelsea comply with PSR. Accounts released on Friday night indicated that the sale was worth £200m, with a realised profit of £199m. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion A reckoning could still be on the way given that that inter-group sales are not permitted under Uefa's financial fair play rules. There is no room to relax. Insiders talk of Chelsea needing Champions League football. The hope is that they generated momentum for the run-in when they regained fourth place thanks to their dominant 1-0 win over Tottenham on Thursday. It was good for Maresca to show that he can adapt his tactics. The Italian's patient, positional football has drawn criticism for lacking excitement and being predictable in recent months, but Chelsea were much better against Spurs. Playing with more aggression and tenacity did not jeopardise their structure and their willingness to hit more direct balls proved effective against Ange Postecoglou's high line. Has a corner been turned? The return of Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke from injury will lift the attack. The former remains raw in front of goal but his movement is vital and creates space for Cole Palmer, who hinted at a return to form by creating Enzo Fernández's goal against Spurs. But tougher tests are on the way. Chelsea will have to be physically strong when they visit Brentford on Sunday. The fixture list is awkward. Fighting off the competition for a place in the top five will take character and maturity. There is an exciting long-term vision at Chelsea. They just have to make sure not to lose sight of the present.
New York Times
28-03-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Geovany Quenda is going places. Fast. ‘I see similarities with Lamine Yamal'
Training was already starting when Geovany Quenda turned up. He was new to the neighbourhood — new to the country, in fact — and he wanted to play some football. He approached the coaches and asked if he could join in. In normal circumstances, they would have let him. SF Damaiense, based in the Lisbon suburb of Amadora, is a community club. Turning away bright-eyed local kids is not really the done thing. On this occasion, though, there was a small issue. Quenda, who had just turned nine, didn't have any kit. Advertisement 'He was wearing jeans and trainers — social clothes,' recalls Edmundo Silva, Damaiense's president. 'He clearly had the football bug and was desperate to play, but the coaches said no.' Quenda, disappointed, might just have walked home. Instead, he hung around. He found a spare ball and started kicking it around by himself. He surely knew what he was doing, just as you surely know where this is going. 'The coaches saw his touch, his relationship with the ball,' says Silva. 'It wasn't typical for a kid of that age. They decided to make an exception and let him train. They were curious to see more. And he was astonishing.' Curiosity and astonishment: these have been recurring themes in Quenda's journey to this point. It is not a long story — he is only 17, barely halfway through his breakout season at Sporting CP — but it has moved quickly, hurtling along with the same momentum that defines Quenda's wing play. Chelsea may have won the race to sign him for £40million ($51.8m) — he will move to Stamford Bridge in 2026 — but excitement about his potential goes beyond club affiliations. In Portugal, there is a growing conviction that Quenda will be a genuine global star, not to mention a fixture of the national team for years to come. 'A good news story for Portuguese football,' Portugal coach Roberto Martinez called him in November. Bernardo Silva, one of the stalwarts of Martinez's side, was even more effusive: 'He might steal my place. It's impressive how good he is at that age.' Edmundo Silva recognises that sentiment. 'He had so much quality in his left foot, even back then,' he says. 'After three or four training sessions, we all agreed that the boy was special.' Age, as they say, is just a number. And denim is a just a material. Quenda was born in Guinea-Bissau, west Africa. He moved to Lisbon in 2016, joining his father, who had relocated there for work a couple of years prior. One of his early mentors in Portugal was Basaula Lemba, a former international footballer for Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo). Lemba had spent much of his club career in Portugal and was working as youth coordinator at Damaiense when Quenda arrived. Advertisement 'He had never played organised football, but he was playing passes with both feet, making it look easy,' Lemba told Portuguese website ZeroZero in 2023. 'He was the guy starting every attack. He had extraordinary potential.' Off the field, Quenda was not the most ebullient. 'He was still getting settled into a new life, finding new friends,' explains Silva, the Damaiense president. 'He was observant, not a big talker, but very calm and respectful. And he quickly demonstrated that he was a very attentive, smart kid.' Quenda's talent was so obvious that Silva knew it would be tough to hang onto him for long. He told the youth coaches to hold off on using the youngster in tournaments so scouts from bigger clubs wouldn't catch sight of him before he was fully registered at Damaiense. It was a smart plan. It didn't work. 'The coaches couldn't resist playing him,' says Silva. 'They took him to a competition in another neighbourhood. After five minutes of the first match, I was getting calls from the two big Lisbon clubs asking me where we had unearthed this diamond.' Silva resisted. 'We didn't want to give him up immediately,' he says. 'Geovany was still adapting to a new environment, establishing friendships. Damaiense is a small club, but it has a strong social role in our community. We succeeded in keeping him for a year. It was a fight at times, but it was important for him to be happy.' His next destination was Benfica. He entered their academy in 2017, impressing his new coaches with his dribbling ability and maturity. 'He wasn't scared and he didn't feel pressure,' David Sousa, who managed him at under-11 level, told Portuguese newspaper Record. 'That helped him a lot. He would make difficult things look easy.' After two seasons at Benfica, there was a rift. Quenda and his family expected an offer of a place in the club's on-site boarding house. When it did not materialise, he left, joining rivals Sporting. Tiago Teixeira arrived at Sporting in summer 2022. He became assistant coach of the under-23 side, later taking up the same role with the senior team. He remembers the buzz about Quenda. 'Everyone was talking about Geovany,' Teixeira tells The Athletic. A year later, Teixeira got a closer look at what the fuss was about. Quenda was only 16 when he moved up to under-23 level, but you would never have known it. 'He had a fantastic season for us,' says Teixeira. 'He found it easy to adapt.' Advertisement Teixeira's impressions are recent enough that he quickly abandons the past tense. The player Quenda was in 2023 and 2024 is the player he is today, give or take a little refinement. 'He is a very, very good dribbler,' Teixeira says. 'He's impressive physically and can beat his man on the outside or on the inside.' Case in point: his goal for Portugal Under-17s against Morocco in September 2023, a ludicrous solo effort that left a trail of dazed defenders scratching their heads and wondering what the hell had just happened. O QUE ACABA DE FAZER QUENDA 🤯 Talento inacreditável, 16 anos 💎🦁 — Sporting CP Adeptos 🏆 (@Sporting_CPAdep) September 12, 2023 Teixeira, though, is at pains to point out that Quenda has plenty more arrows in his quiver. 'He's a very intense player, very committed,' he says. 'But I think his greatest strengths are his decision-making and his ability to play the final ball. He reads the game brilliantly.' It is telling that the players Quenda looked up to in his early teens — Franco Cervi at Benfica, Marcus Edwards at Sporting — were not hug-the-touchline wingers, but tricksy creators. Many of his assists at youth level and for Sporting's B team came from through balls rather than crosses. He is currently playing on the left flank for Sporting, but it is not a given that he will end up there. 'He has a great capacity to learn new positions,' says Teixeira. 'Sometimes with the under-23s, he was close to being a No 10. He can operate in small spaces, be that out wide or in central areas. He is very switched on defensively, so he really contributes out of possession, too. In the long term, I think he will end up playing through the middle.' It seems fair to say that Quenda's career would not have progressed quite this quickly were it not for Ruben Amorim. It was the latter's willingness to promote youth players that propelled the teenager into Sporting's first team last summer. 'We see him as a big project,' Amorim said in March 2024. 'We will take it slowly and look at the big picture.' Quenda quickly put paid to the careful approach. Playing slightly out of position at right wing-back, he found the net in the Portuguese Super Cup against Porto — a goal that made him Sporting's youngest-ever scorer — and never left the side thereafter. 'He got an opportunity and didn't give me any way to leave him out,' Amorim said after watching Quenda net his first league goal against Famalicao in October. 'No reason for doubt, nothing. I think he's going to be a great player.' Advertisement It is to Quenda's credit that his level did not dip when Amorim departed to join Manchester United in November. He has arguably been even more effective under the new coach, Rui Borges; witness the superb assists against Vitoria Guimaraes and Porto this year. Borges, clearly, likes Quenda a lot — and not just the cutting edge he provides. 'Individual quality isn't enough and he understands that, understands that he has to be committed,' Borges said after a recent victory. 'He's a kid who likes to learn.' His team-mates, meanwhile, increasingly look to him for inspiration. 'He's an enormous talent,' Sporting captain Morten Hjulmand told Record last week. 'What stands out is the way he carries the ball. It's hard to stop him because he changes direction at great speed. He's really hard to mark.' Like any 17-year-old, Quenda is not a perfect player. Amorim once expressed exasperation at his finishing, which could generously be characterised as scattershot. 'He is often more interested in setting others up than shooting himself,' says Teixeira. 'I think he could also be more aggressive in one-on-one situations. He could go at his marker more, be a bit more incisive and ambitious, maybe alternate more between going left and right.' The extra year in Lisbon should work to his advantage. He is still living at the Sporting academy, still in school. There are plans for extra English lessons to soften his landing when he moves to London in 15 months' time. Teixeira, for one, doesn't believe he will have any problem adapting to a new league. Of greater concern will be the precise circumstances he encounters at his new club. It is not just that Chelsea already have a huge cadre of wingers and creative midfielders; it is also that two more players with very similar profiles to Quenda — Kendry Paez and Willian Estevao — are also due to arrive before him. Paez and Estevao are both left-footed attackers who can play wide or centrally. Both will arrive with significant fanfare. Both are still teenagers. You could easily see Chelsea signing a couple more wonderkids before 2026, too. What's the plan here? Not for Chelsea, whose modus operandi under Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly at least has the benefit of being transparent, but for Quenda? There is a lot to be said for backing yourself, but the route to regular first-team starts at Stamford Bridge does look unusually congested. There is a danger that at least one of the new guys is going to go the way of Angelo Gabriel, the much-hyped Brazilian winger who was flogged to Al-Nassr — still, somehow, at a profit — in September after precisely zero appearances in Chelsea blue. Advertisement You can understand, perhaps, why some saw Manchester United — and a reunion with the coach who first took a chance on him — as a better fit. 'The Amorim factor could have been a big help,' Sousa, Quenda's old coach at Benfica told Record. 'Maybe it would have been easier for him to adapt.' It is Quenda's task — and Chelsea's — to make those hypotheticals irrelevant. The talent, clearly, is there. And for all that we must exercise caution when we talk up 17-year-olds, for all that that it is our duty to highlight the possible pitfalls, to point out that players rarely follow a linear development path, there is a degree of confidence about Quenda's ability to surf the waves. 'I see similarities with Lamine Yamal,' says Teixeira. 'Both of them started playing senior football at 16, 17. Yamal is already playing for Spain but Quenda has just been called up by Portugal for the first time and I'm certain he's going to be a regular in the national team for years to come, and a star of the Champions League. 'He will get better with age and keep growing in confidence. He has everything he needs.'
Forbes
27-03-2025
- Sport
- Forbes
New Chelsea Winger Has Been Signed To Save Enzo Maresca
The summer transfer window won't open for another three months, but Chelsea has already been busy in the market. The Blues confirmed the capture of Geovany Quenda and Dario Essugo from Sporting CP last week with the Stamford Bridge club stumping up a combined £62.4m for the pair who will join in the summer. Quenda is a particularly notable signing. The 17-year-old is widely seen as one of the brightest young wingers in European soccer and had been linked with a move to Manchester United where he would have been reunited with Ruben Amorim. Instead, Chelsea won the race to land the Portuguese U21 international. For Sporting CP, Quenda has performed well on the right wing as a wing back. He has the mobility to get up and down the pitch and has contributed four assists in the league. It's easy to see why Chelsea has moved so quickly with Enzo Maresca desperate for a wide difference-maker in his team. Chelsea has wingers. Noni Madueke, Pedro Neto, Christopher Nkunku and Jadon Sancho have all played in the wide areas for the Blues this season, but have struggled to make much of an impression. In fact, recent reports suggest Chelsea will pay £5m to send Sancho back to Manchester United at the end of the season. This situation has seen Chelsea suffer. Maresca's style of play sees his team take control of matches through possession, but the Blues have been predictable to play against without much dynamism on the wings. This has been exacerbated further in recent matches when Cole Palmer has struggled for his best form. It's possible Quenda could be used at right back by Chelsea. Maresca has chopped and changed in this position over the course of the season and has even used Reece James in central midfield. On the right side of the defence, Quenda would give Chelsea another way to get into the final third. He could be the Blues' Dani Alves. Alternatively, Quenda could be Chelsea's Bukayo Saka. Mikel Arteta also likes his Arsenal team to control matches through possession, but he relies on Saka to give the Gunners a different dimension. He is the one who makes things happen in the attacking third. Chelsea wants Quenda to be a similar sort of figure. Under Maresca, Chelsea has made progress this season. The Blues are in contention for a top four place and could finish the campaign by winning the Conference League. However, it's become clear over the last few weeks that Chelsea needs to continue to evolve to achieve more. Quenda's signing reflects this.
Yahoo
23-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Sporting teammate backs new Chelsea signing Quenda for the top
Sporting Lisbon defender Ivan Fresneda has backed new Chelsea signing Geovanny Quenda to be a big player in the future. Chelsea confirmed the signing of Quenda from Sporting earlier this week after agreeing a deal in the region of £44m for the teenager. The 17-year-old will spend next season on loan at Sporting before joining up with the Premier League side in 2026. Chelsea have also agreed a deal to sign Sporting midfielder Dario Essugo. 🇵🇹⭐️ | 𝐆𝐞𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐚 (𝟏𝟕) vs Famalicão: 2 Key Passes. 1 Big Chance Created. 82% Pass Accuracy. 32 Passes Completed. 3/5 Successful Long Balls. 4/10 Ground Duels Won. 100% Aerial Duels Won. 2 Tackles. 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐋𝐃-𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐒 𝐏𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐀𝐋. — Rising Stars XI (@RisingStarXI) March 15, 2025 The West Londoners launched a move for Quenda after a brilliant breakout season for the winger. He became the youngest player to score for Sporting, surpassing players including Simao Sabrosa and Cristiano Ronaldo, when netting on his debut against Porto in August. Since then, Quenda has made 44 appearances in all competitions for a Sporting side chasing a second successive Primeira Liga title. The deal that has taken Quenda to Chelsea makes the youngster the most expensive u-18 player in world football. Discussing the talent of Quenda, Fresenda opened up on the rapid rise of the youngster. While the Spaniard admitted to being surprised at the speed of his development, he has no doubt that Chelsea have signed one of Europe's best prospects in the jet-heeled winger. 'I have a very good relationship with Quenda, I'm 20 and he's 17. Because of our age, we also have that relationship,' Fresneda explained in an interview with Flashscore. 'And I was surprised, of course. All you have to do is watch the training sessions, stay here for a week and see what that kid does, you'd go mad. 'Chelsea's interest doesn't surprise anyone at the club. Quenda is going to be big in the future. This season, next season and from now on. He's going to be something to talk about.' Read – See more – | | | |
New York Times
23-03-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Chelsea have reasons behind doing transfer business in March – and want this to be a habit
When it comes to their transfer business in 2025, Chelsea do not intend to wait around. Chelsea have already agreed deals with Portugal's Sporting CP this month for midfielder Dario Essugo (joining this summer) and winger Geovany Quenda (arriving in 2026), but this is just the start of their quest to get things done early. Advertisement Agreeing to sign a player outside a transfer window when it is not a Bosman (players who are out of contract in the summer can open talks with a foreign club from January onwards) does happen in the sport, but it is unusual. Inevitably it provokes the question — why have Chelsea felt the need to do so and what are their intentions going forward? In terms of this duo specifically, one of the reasons is fairly obvious. They did not want to be beaten to the acquisition by somebody else. As The Athletic revealed, Chelsea faced stiff competition from Manchester United and a Premier League club currently in the top three for Quenda's signature to highlight just two rivals for his signature. As for Essugo, Chelsea became aware of five to six other teams that were pursuing the 20-year-old and did not want to risk losing out on him either. But Chelsea sources, who spoke to The Athletic under the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, say that this is just one factor behind it. The club are aiming to get the majority of their business done, both ins and outs, by the end of June this year. That includes two of the most high-profile acquisitions — a centre-forward and a right-footed winger. Chelsea feel they are in a good position to do this because they have been working on these deals, just like with Quenda and Essugo, in advance for months. A lot of planning is going into this as well as possible exits. The desire is to have a group of 23 to 24 outfield players who the club believe will be strong enough to compete in the Premier League, domestic cups and European competition should they qualify. It is clearly ideal for every club to get their ins and outs done as early in the summer as possible so that a head coach has a settled squad with whom to work ahead of the new season. The more time a new player has to settle into a new environment the better. For example, Chelsea recognise that signing club-record buy Moises Caicedo, who joined from Brighton for £115million in mid-August 2023, after the first game of the season hurt the start to his Chelsea career. Advertisement Having unwanted players still hanging around is no good for anyone, either, and the distraction caused by all the talk surrounding the 'bomb squad' last summer was not ideal for new head coach Enzo Maresca. The thinking is that sales will fund the purchase of a centre-forward and winger, while also being good for the books in general. Players will still be loaned out too. For example, Mathis Amougou is already being lined up to join Strasbourg. But apart from Andrey Santos, who is going to be part of the first-team squad, Chelsea are confident they will be able to sell many of their current loanees because they have been benefiting from playing elsewhere. Events of last summer have to leave a bit of a question mark over that, when you consider that unwanted trio Raheem Sterling, Armando Broja and Trevoh Chalobah only agreed loan deals at the end of August. Ben Chilwell ended up staying put until securing a loan to Crystal Palace in January. But Chelsea believe they are in a better position than previous years and have done a lot more groundwork on exits in advance. Chelsea's intention going forward is to get things done earlier in the summer windows anyway, but it is of particular importance this year because of their participation in the Club World Cup. This has been on their minds since last year. Their first game is on June 16 — their new opponents are to be confirmed after Club Leon were removed from the competition by FIFA — and if they get to the final, their last fixture will be played on July 13. Chelsea hope that they go on to lift the trophy but, whenever their participation ends, they will give their players three weeks off. With the next Premier League season starting on August 16, there will not be time for a full pre-season. They are thinking there will be, at most, one to two weeks to prepare. Advertisement So while Chelsea are treating the Club World Cup very seriously and want to win it, they are considering it like a pre-season camp, too. It is part of their preparation for 2025-26. That means the possibility of new signings being with the squad to train and learn Maresca's system even though they won't be involved in the games. Chelsea want them to be integrated. Chelsea do not see this as a one-off and think they will be in a better position to do things earlier and earlier every year. The theory certainly sounds good. Now it is a case of seeing whether everything they hope to achieve can be done in practice.
