The Transfer Business of Chelsea and Strasbourg
Liahm Rosenior with Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
BlueCo was formed in February of 2022, a consortium which until very recently comprised Todd Boehly (12.8%), Clearlake Capital (61.5%), Hansjörg Wyss (12.8%) and Mark Walter (12.8%). On the 30th May 2022, a deal for the consortium to buy Chelsea FC was completed in a £4.25 billion takeover following the UK government’s sanctions on former owner and Russian oligarch, Roman Abramovich.
In June the following year, BlueCo agreed a deal to buy French club RC Strasbourg Alsace to serve as part of a multi-club ownership, a structure that currently only includes Chelsea and Strasbourg, although there has previously been rumoured interest in acquiring a Portuguese club for the group. Multi-club ownership is not a new concept, with City Football Group and Red Bull the most notorious organisations which run in a similar model.
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Chelsea is no stranger to partner clubs, with the former regime having an excellent working relationship with Dutch side Vitesse Arnhem, where many of Cobham’s emerging talents developed on loan, such as Mason Mount, Dominic Solanke and Charley Musonda Jr, in addition to many other former Blues players.
The key benefit of multi-club ownership is the ability to have clubs that operate with similar playing styles, where players can transfer from a ‘flagship’ team to a ‘sister club’ to develop whilst playing the same brand of football, facilitating an ideally seamless transition. Since BlueCo took ownership of Strasbourg, 20 players have moved between the two clubs.
Chelsea, on the whole, have used the French side to either send promising talent to develop or to get players surplus to requirements off the books. Far fewer players have gone the other way, with Chelsea seemingly at the top of the food chain in the club hierarchy, selectively signing the top emerging talent.
Summer 2023
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In the summer transfer window of 2023, the first transfer dealings between the clubs under the new ownership model took place; new Chelsea signing Ângelo Gabriel moved to the French side on loan, less than a month after joining Chelsea. The young Brazilian assisted four goals in 25 matches during his time at Strasbourg before returning to West London in the summer of 2024.
The Brazilian prospect was not in new Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca’s plans upon returning from loan and was sold to Saudi Arabian side Al-Nassr on the second of September for a reported €8 million profit, joining the Blues for €15 million and departing for €23 million.
This transfer is likely regarded as a success by BlueCo and the epitome of what a multi-club ownership should provide in a business sense: Ângelo joined the Blues, never made a professional appearance for Chelsea, yet still turned them a profit. Playing consistent game time allowed the youngster to develop and increase his market value despite never truly setting the world alight in France.
Playing time is the most valuable thing a young talent can have, and a loan provided this as opposed to riding the bench at Chelsea for the season or being relegated to the U21s. Ângelo is still at the Saudi side, only 21 years of age, and has scored three goals and assisted two in seven games thus far in the 27/27 Saudi Pro League.
Winter 2024
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The second player to make the switch from the ‘Blues’ to ‘Les Bleus’ was another young Brazilian talent, Andrey Santos. Following a disappointing loan at Nottingham Forest, which was cut short, Chelsea sent Santos to Strasbourg for a half-season loan on the first of February 2024. After impressing, he was then sent back to the Ligue 1 side on a full-season loan on the second of August.
It was in Santos’ second loan spell that he truly excelled, managing 11 goals and 6 assists from midfield in the 24/25 season and even captaining the side on numerous occasions, first putting on the armband against OGC Nice aged just 20! The midfielder was rewarded for his efforts with a promotion to the Chelsea first team for the 25/26 season.
The multi-club model serves to reward the players who yield the best results by playing for the team at the top of the model’s pyramid, much to the dismay of the Strasbourg faithful. Santos had an okay season as a Chelsea first-team player; however, most Chelsea players struggled with the lack of stability last season and usurping Chelsea's two hundred-pound midfielders proved a challenge.
On the 13th of July 2026, Andrey Santos joined Manchester United in a €56.3 million deal, well above his reported market value of €40 million and a profit on the €12.5 million Chelsea bought him for. Despite not having the best of seasons, Santos’ successful loan at Strasbourg was a case study to justify why United should outlay the fee that they did. In business terms, the Strasbourg loan would be seen as a success as it was another example of a player increasing their market value over a loan and helping Chelsea raise a profit.
Summer 2024
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The summer following the Strasbourg takeover, deals between the clubs started to increase in volume. Young American talent Caleb Wiley, who joined the Blues from Atlanta, moved to Strasbourg on loan on the 11th August 2024; however, the left-back only ever made 6 appearances for the club, picking up 1 assist in the process and was recalled from his loan at the start of February, heading out on a new loan to Watford the following day. He spent the majority of last season out injured and is now on loan at Preston North End; the defender is still just 21 with no real clear pathway to the first team.
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The first permanent deal between the clubs was the sale of Diego Moreira from Chelsea to Strasbourg. The Portuguese player was sold to Strasbourg for a nominal fee of £1.7 million on the 16th August after it was deemed there wasn’t a clear pathway into the first team for him, with the Belgian only ever making one competitive appearance for the men’s team in the EFL Cup against AFC Wimbledon in 2023.
At Strasbourg, he changed position from a winger and developed into one of the most highly regarded fullbacks in Europe, and last summer was sold to AC Milan for €50 million guaranteed with €16 million in achievable add-ons. It is believed Chelsea had a 40% sell-on clause included in the sale, yielding a large return on a player who only ever played 45 minutes for Chelsea and was signed on a free from the Benfica academy. This deal proved the use of the French side to Chelsea, discarding a player who was seen as surplus to requirements and sending them to a club where they could have nailed-on minutes and develop, reaping the success of his development years on.
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The last deal between the clubs in the summer of 2024 was the loan of goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic from West London to Eastern France on the 30th August. Petrovic joined Chelsea the previous summer and had one season as a first-team player, making 31 appearances and keeping 7 clean sheets along the way, 10 more appearances than fellow goalkeeper Robert Sanchez, who was signed the same summer but had an injury-struck campaign. At the end of the 23/24 season, it was decided Sanchez would be the number one, and the Serbian keeper was sent to Strasbourg on loan towards the very end of the transfer window on the 30th August.
The 6-foot-4 keeper excelled in France, keeping 10 clean sheets in 31 matches, helping the French side qualify for European football. The loan ultimately helped increase the goalkeeper’s market value and helped Chelsea attract suitors, a much better outcome than him being bench-bound for the season with his stock plummeting. Petrovic was eventually sold to AFC Bournemouth in the summer of 2025 for a reported €28.9 million, an 81% return on the initial €16 million he was bought for.
Winter 2025
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Mamadou Sarr was sold from Strasbourg to Chelsea for €14 million after the French side had bought the centre-back for €10 million in the summer of 2024. He was signed on a pre-agreement in January of 2025 after just 14 appearances for the Ligue 1 outfit (he eventually went on to make 46 appearances across the season), officially moving to Stamford Bridge in the following summer window. The six-foot-four Senegal international was signed on a pre-agreement to comply with FIFA’s rules on loans, as Chelsea already had three players (Petrovic, Wiley and Santos) on loan at Strasbourg and the nature of this deal meant he could stay and develop at the club.
The defender was loaned back to Strasbourg on the first of August 2025 but was recalled on the second of February to serve as defensive cover for Liam Rosenior’s Chelsea side, with the manager having worked with Sarr at Strasbourg previously. Sarr is now on loan in Spain with Real Sociedad, and it is yet to be seen if the central defender will eventually break into the Blues squad; he is seen as a very promising talent with lots of raw ability that needs to be allowed to develop.
This transfer, like more to come, is an example of Chelsea signing a player from Strasbourg on a pre-agreement, taking a considered gamble that they are signing a player who would otherwise become a more expensive talent by the end of the season, with the club ‘buying while the stocks are low’ compared to what they could rise to be.
Summer 2025
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A busy summer between the two affiliate clubs began with the loan of Mike Penders from Chelsea to Strasbourg, joining the French side on the 28th July 2025 after being an unused substitute in the Club World Cup, taking the gloves from fellow Chelsea loanee Petrovic. This loan move was extremely successful, with the Belgian international developing into a ball-playing keeper, almost slotting in as an extra centre-back in possession, a highly desired trait in the modern game.
The six-foot-seven keeper kept 12 clean sheets in 52 matches, averaging 1.25 goals conceded per game, an impressive return for a young talent who experienced managerial change during the season. This loan was another example that playing time is the best way to develop young footballers, especially in the competitive keeper position where it can be very difficult to usurp a more experienced number one.
Mike Penders is now in Chelsea’s first team, getting minutes in the cups, potentially replicating the pathway of former Blue, Thibaut Courtois, who joined the first team as second fiddle to an ageing Petr Cech and eventually became the first-choice goalkeeper. The short-term signing of Emi Martínez (two-year contract) suggests Chelsea’s confidence in the young Belgian as they wish to establish a clear pathway for the player to become a regular starter between the sticks.
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A strange piece of business between the clubs occurred in the form of Mathis Amougou. The young Frenchman was signed by Chelsea from St Etienne on the third of February 2025 for a reported €15 million; however, he only made 2 appearances, totalling 22 minutes, prior to being sold to Strasbourg after just 5 months in London for a similar fee.
Amougou joins a long list of young midfield prospects Chelsea have stockpiled that never had a concrete chance of breaking into the first team ahead of Chelsea’s hundred-million-pound midfield pair of Enzo Fernández and Moises Caicedo. It is unclear if the plan was always for Amougou to join Strasbourg and this deal was a way around financial fair play or if he was simply deemed not high enough quality, but the prospect is still just 20 and now on loan from Strasbourg to Toulouse after struggling for minutes with the Alsatians.
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The next deal between the clubs was yet another loan from Chelsea to Strasbourg. The young Ecuadorian talent, Kendry Paez, signed for Chelsea in June of 2023 but officially completed his move to Stamford Bridge after turning 18 in May of 2025 for an estimated £17.27 million. He was then sent on loan to Strasbourg on the 31st July.
The attacking midfielder started well at Strasbourg, winning September’s young player of the month in Ligue 1 2025, but then received criticism from Liam Rosenior publicly that age is not an excuse for behaviour and attitude after off-the-pitch antics tainted his time in France. Paez scored one goal in 21 appearances for Strasbourg before having his loan terminated in January of 2026.
Paez was subsequently sent on a two-year loan to River Plate, which was also terminated early after the same issues of attitude and off-the-field antics left him out of favour in addition to being out of form. The teenager is currently 19, with heaps of potential and lots to prove but has been relegated to ‘Cobham Next Gen’, with Alonso making it clear Paez is not in his immediate plans.
By far the most bizarre transfer in the history of the multi-club ownership was the temporary transfer of Cobham talent, Ishe Samuels-Smith, from Chelsea to Strasbourg. The young Englishman was sold to Strasbourg on the 30th July but re-signed for Chelsea 33 days later and was immediately loaned to Swansea on September second. The left-back is currently on loan at Notts County with a market value of €700K, far below the €4.7 million Chelsea paid Everton for his services in 2021.
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The final piece of business between the clubs in the summer window was the ‘sale’ of Ben Chilwell from Chelsea to Strasbourg. The likely reason for Samuels-Smith’s loan cancellation was due to the departure of Chilwell from Chelsea on a free to Strasbourg, which would have drastically reduced the minutes the young Englishman would have got.
Following his loan at Crystal Palace, Ben Chilwell was made a part of Enzo Maresca’s ‘Bomb Squad’. Effectively forced out of the club after failing to find a move previously in the summer window, Ben Chilwell was signed by Strasbourg for free on a two-year deal, the same length that was remaining on his Chelsea deal.
This deal was clearly beneficial to Chelsea, getting expensive wages off the books, transferring the cost to their sister club in the final days of the transfer window after failing to sell the left-back elsewhere. The Champions League winner eventually went on to make 34 appearances for Strasbourg across the 25/26 season before exiting his deal on a free to rejoin Crystal Palace and serve as left-back cover in South London.
Winter 2026
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Following Chelsea’s recall of Mamadou Sarr in the winter transfer window, Chelsea replaced the Senegalese defender by sending Aaron Anselmino to France on loan. The Argentinian struggled in France, only making three appearances for Strasbourg as hamstring injuries persisted throughout the season. The young centre-back has currently made just one appearance for Chelsea’s first team, a 2-minute cameo in the Club World Cup against Benfica. He is currently on the sidelines following an injury in the opening half an hour of Chelsea’s pre-season match against Darul Ta’zim.
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The second piece of transfer business between the clubs was the loan of David Datro Fofana from Chelsea to Strasbourg. On the second of February 2026, the Ivorian striker was loaned to Strasbourg after his loan at Karagümrük was cut short. The Blues had originally intended to sell the striker in the winter window but failed to sign any suitors, and he was sent to Strasbourg in order to try to impress and make selling the player easier.
Datro Fofana’s loan to Strasbourg was one of five loans in three and a half years at Chelsea, with the lack of consistency making it hard for the talent to ever impress and perform consistently. He only ever played 113 minutes in France across 4 games.
The case of Datro Fofana is a strange symptom of BlueCo’s mass recruitment. The striker was signed from Norwegian side Molde FK and played an exceptional 45 minutes in his first start for Chelsea against Southampton in the Premier League; however, he was then hooked at half-time and never seen in a Chelsea shirt again. The player then became a part of the infamous ‘bomb-squad’; he became a victim of the horrific 23/24 season where Chelsea had 4 managers, 3 of whom coincided with his time at the club. A constant chopping and changing of gaffers meant immediate results were expected, and promising talents were less likely to be given chances to shine.
Summer 2026
Business between the clubs showed no signs of slowing in the latest transfer window as seven players were involved in loans and permanent moves.
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This summer’s dealings between the sister-clubs began with the permanent transfer of Emmanuel Emegha from Strasbourg to Chelsea. This deal was struck in September of 2025 on a pre-agreement for the same reasons as previous pre-agreements: to sign the player before his transfer value increases, and to stay compliant with FIFA’s loan rules. The player had interest during the summer of 2025 and Chelsea managed to snap him up before other teams could pursue him further due to their close affiliation with Strasbourg.
The transfer was met with frustration from the Strasbourg faithful as the six-foot-five striker had just been named club captain and had agreed to join another club at the very start of the season; it was not the first scenario where the Dutchman had landed himself in hot water in France, after previously making comments that he thought Strasbourg was in Germany prior to signing. The striker had netted 31 goals and assisted 7 in 78 appearances in France, averaging 0.62 goal involvements per game, although his time at Strasbourg was undermined by persistent injuries, missing 243 days of last season with 4 separate injuries including hamstring, muscle fibre tears and a dead leg.
Emegha is yet to make a competitive appearance for Chelsea; he started pre-season well, scoring twice in two matches in behind-closed-doors friendlies against Crawley Town and Bromley prior to picking up a hamstring injury in the latter fixture.
Pre-agreeing transfers for such a long time in the future carries high levels of risk, with the majority of Emegha’s injuries in France coming after he agreed to join Chelsea and by the time he left the Ligue 1 side, he was not even their highest rated striker, with Argentine Joaquín Panichelli netting 12 more than his 4 goals and playing almost 3 times as many Ligue 1 games, although Panichelli suffered an injury-riddled season himself. Hopefully Emegha can regain fitness and pick up a good run of form, helping spread the workload of Joao Pedro, with the Dutchman’s tall frame potentially a key asset for Chelsea.
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Another player to make the move from Strasbourg to Stamford Bridge permanently was Valentin Barco, as the Argentine made a return to the Premier League in a deal worth €40 million following an unsuccessful stint at De Zerbi’s Brighton. Barco officially joined Chelsea on the second of August; however, an agreement was struck between the clubs much earlier in the season. Barco played 58 games for Strasbourg, netting 3 goals and managing 11 assists from the middle of the park, helping the side reach the Conference League semi-final and finish 1 point off European football despite a managerial change mid-season.
Before joining Strasbourg, Barco was out of form after struggling for minutes after his transfer from Boca Juniors to Brighton, where he only managed to pick up 318 minutes in 7 games prior to being loaned to Sevilla, where he only made 9 appearances, with his loan terminated early, eventually getting sent on loan to Strasbourg the following day.
The Argentine impressed on loan at Strasbourg, and his move was made permanent for just €10 million. This is a case study of the minnow of a multi-club network buying emerging talent cheaply, developing them and selling them on to the club higher up in the ‘food chain’, with the French side quadrupling their money on the Argentine. In regard to his development, Strasbourg transformed Barco from an inverting left-back who could get bullied on the flanks to a midfielder who could control the tempo of games. With key midfield injuries, Barco is slowly being trusted by Xabi Alonso more and is gradually picking up more minutes, picking up his first Premier League start in Chelsea’s last fixture, a 3-0 loss to Brentford.
A player who went the other way, moving from Chelsea’s academy to Strasbourg, was defender Genesis Antwi. The Cobham talent has been with Chelsea from the Under-12 age group and became a regular with the Under-21s over the last couple of seasons, earning two appearances in the Europa Conference League in the process. The 19-year-old is one of many promising right-backs to come out of Cobham over the years alongside Reece James and Tino Livramento and has had a bright start to life in France, starting all of the side’s 5 matches in the league thus far and completing the full 90 in all bar his first game.
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Filip Jorgensen continued the trend of Chelsea keepers being loaned to the French side. The Danish keeper largely served as a backup to Robert Sanchez during his time at Chelsea, never cementing himself as the undisputed number one. The shot stopper made 36 appearances across his two seasons at Chelsea, with the bulk of them coming from the Europa Conference League and domestic cup competitions.
Jorgensen has instantly become Strasbourg’s starting keeper, having conceded 10 in five games thus far, waiting on his first clean sheet. Similar to the loan of Petrovic, he is likely at Strasbourg to increase his market value with the hope Chelsea can find a permanent destination for him, with no obvious pathway back into the first team following the signing of Emi Martínez and inclusion of Mike Penders in the squad.
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On the 25th August, Omari Kellyman completed a permanent transfer to Strasbourg for an estimated €6 million. The Englishman suffered an injury-riddled first season at Chelsea with 2 hamstring injuries and surgery in 24/25, then followed a successful loan at Cardiff, bagging 11 goals and 2 assists across 42 games, scoring 5 and assisting 1 in 6 games as false nine, helping Cardiff earn automatic promotion to the Championship.
Kellyman joined Chelsea for €25 million when he had a market value of just €1.5 million as part of a PSR-motivated deal with Aston Villa, which saw Cobham talent Ian Maatsen go the other way. The attacking midfielder never made a competitive appearance for Chelsea and is yet to make his Strasbourg debut; it is believed Chelsea retain a sell-on clause.
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Another player to make the move to France was Deivid Washington, joining Strasbourg on a permanent deal for €16 million on the first of September, identical to the amount Chelsea paid Brazilian side Santos for his services. The young Brazilian played 25 minutes for Chelsea’s first team across three matches with 9-, 14-, and 2-minute cameos during Mauricio Pochettino’s reign. For the Under-21s, Washington managed 15 goals and 4 assists in 35 matches. The winger was part of a flurry of late business between the clubs, with an outsider perspective suggesting Chelsea needed to offload players and had a helping hand from their sister side. Washington is yet to make an appearance for Strasbourg, not yet being included in their matchday squad.
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The second player to join Strasbourg on September first was Dario Essugo, who was permitted to leave on loan despite the departure of Enzo Fernández the same day, leaving Chelsea’s midfield options particularly thin. Essugo struggled in his first and only season in the Chelsea squad, picking up an injury and requiring surgery soon after joining the Blues whilst on international duty with Portugal under-21s, then getting injured soon after coming back from surgery, missing a combined 168 days of last season.
Once Essugo rejoined the team, he struggled for minutes, playing a total of 147 minutes last season. Essugo has played 95 minutes across three games for Strasbourg so far this season, picking up one assist in the process. It is yet to be seen what the plan is for the Portuguese midfielder come the end of the season.
Conclusion
Many Strasbourg fans are discontent with being a cog in a multi-club structure as they feel they are at the bottom of a food chain and the players (and managers) that do succeed will be cherry-picked by Chelsea, although there is an argument to be had that the team now have access to a pool of talent and resources that they would not otherwise be able to access. From a Chelsea point of view, it is extremely helpful to have a team who play in a similar style of football to send emerging talent to develop, offload deadwood to free up the wage bill and sign up-and-coming players with first dibs.
Multi-club ownership sums up the ever-increasing corporatisation of football in the modern world, and the businessmen who run Chelsea will likely seek to take full advantage of this to gain a sporting advantage.