Chelsea have signed Enzo Fernandez from Benfica for the equivalent of 121 million euros, as the Portuguese club announced on Wednesday night (February 1, 2023).
Fernandez has only been with Benfica since the summer but has developed tremendously under German coach Roger Schmidt. The 22-year-old had moved to Portugal from River Plate. In 17 league games in Portugal he scored one goal and provided five assists. At the World Cup, he won the title with Argentina and was named the tournament’s best young player.
The midfielder, who received a contract until 2031, replaced Manchester City’s Jack Grealish as the most expensive Premier League signing. The winger went from Aston Villa to the Skyblues in 2021 for 117.50 million euros. The transfer window in England closed at midnight on Tuesday, Central European Time.
Long-term contracts for the financial rules
For Chelsea, meanwhile, it was the eighth new signing of the winter. According to transfermarkt.de, the club spent 329.50 million euros in this transfer window alone. In the entire 2022/2023 season, the expenses of the current tenth in the table amount to 611.49 million euros.
The gigantic sums brought criticism to Chelsea and raised the question of how this can be brought into line with UEFA’s financial regulations.
Chelsea previously signed Mikhailo Mudryk from Shakhtar Donetsk for €100m and gave the player an eight-and-a-half-year contract. And so the club proceeded with other players. Background: The costs for the transfer can be amortized over the term of the contract.
The transfer only makes itself felt with around twelve million per season, which gives Chelsea room for maneuver in the further formation of the squad. According to the English media, FIFA now wants to ban contracts of more than five years in general. So far exceptions apply.
Little income on the transfer market
Chelsea’s expenses are offset by little income, at least on the transfer market. All that was announced on Tuesday was that Jorginho would join Arsenal for £12m (€13.6m).