What is the history of the relationship between Chelsea and Sporting?

On March 20th, Chelsea announced the signings of Geovany Quenda and Dario Essugo for a combined fee of £62.4 million. 17-year-old Quenda recently broke into the Sporting squad this season, making his Champions League debut in September. His move to Stamford Bridge will have to wait however, as Quenda will remain in the Portugal capital until the end of next season.

✅ Dário Essugo
✅ Geovany Quenda

Signed for a combined £62m… ✨ pic.twitter.com/QqqQb5Q1bS

— LDN (@LDNFootbalI) March 19, 2025

Essugo is 20 years of age and currently playing in La Liga at Las Palmas on loan. He will move to London at the end of his loan spell and has potential to join up with Maresca’s squad for the FIFA Club World Cup this summer. These two were poached by Chelsea Co-Owner Todd Boehly as he will potentially look to fit them into the squad in the future to strengthen and learn from players in the current squad.

Chelsea’s model

These two transfers perfectly explain the Boehly transfer model however he is still struggling to get Blues fans on his side. But what is this transfer model?

Before BlueCo consortium purchased a majority stake in the London club, Chelsea under Roman Abramovich were only buying players who had already cemented their names in football, very rarely going for young talent- the only exception to this rule were Didier Drogba and Eden Hazard who were certainly both worth the risk.

However, since the takeover in 2022, Boehly has almost integrated a system which is polar opposite to previous owners. Since the £4.25 billion takeover, Boehly has been very transparent with fans stating his priority is profit. This is mirrored by his strategy of signing young talent from around the globe, eventually selling them on for a profit. This is also why Chelsea have been spending so much; with many people claiming Chelsea are breaching profit and sustainability rules when in fact they are making a profit on almost every player they sell.

This does annoy many fans as they feel like Boehly is throwing money around for no reason. This is demonstrated by the poor league positions Chelsea have managed in his time so far.

Over one 𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐎𝐍 pounds spent under Todd Boehly at Chelsea. 😳 pic.twitter.com/WQJa4jsCTN

— Football Daily (@footballdaily) September 2, 2023

Chelsea’s oldest player in their entire outfield squad is 27-year-old Tosin Adarabioyo. He will be expected to move on soon however, with teenagers Josh Acheampong making a name for himself at the Bridge, with Aaron Anselmino waiting in the wings also, demonstrates Chelsea's focus on the future.

A criticism of this strategy is that Chelsea is well-known for owning one of the best academies in the world, however he is not using it. With stars playing all around the world having started at Cobham such as Reece James, Declan Rice, Fikayo Tomori, Dominic Solanke and so many more. One very recent departure that fans were left fuming at Boehly for was selling on Conor Gallagher to Atletico Madrid in the summer.

Boehly is trying to build Chelsea as a global brand- similar to Manchester City as he is planning on building a multi-club model. Chelsea announced the purchase of French side RC Strasbourg in June 2023, where they are already sending young players there for experience such as Andrew Santos, with Mathis Amougou another to go there alongside Kendry Paez.

Boehly showed concrete interest in potentially purchasing an initial minority stake in Sporting CP too as he saw it as another good club to send young talent too for experience.

Sporting academy- why would Chelsea be interested in a minority stake

There are many reasons to be interested in purchasing Sporting for the multi-club model- one being their academy system. As previously discussed with the recent signings of Quenda and Essugo- these are just two examples of talent Sporting have had come through their academy system- with Quenda who was initially at Benfica briefly before moving Sporting when he was 12.

Some massive names have come up through their academy system- including Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Figo and Paulo Futre. So it is with no surprise that Boehly wanted to add them to his arsenal. After purchasing Strasbourg however, it seems BlueCo have turned eyes away from Europe for the time being, with Boehly now very interested in branching out to South America where the Blues have also shipped a flurry of talent from over the past 36 months or so.