Andrey Santos is the top scorer for Under-21 players in Ligue 1 this season. Lyon and France Under-21 attacker Rayan Cherki, who Chelsea looked at last summer, is the next closest with six, and he is nine months older than Santos.
Lucas Stassin (Saint-Etienne) is four months younger and also has six, so does Eliesse Ben Sehir (Monaco). On this metric, Santos is in a league of his own.
Bradley Barcola (Paris Saint-Germain) and Emmanual Emegha (RC Strasbourg) have scored 13 and 12 respectively and are 22. Mika Biereth (Monaco), is also 22 and has 11 since his January move from Sturm Gratz.
Santos will not celebrate his 21st birthday until May 3, though. When he returns to Chelsea for the Club World Cup he will have almost 50 top flight games in France under his belt as well as 49 for Vasco da Gama's senior side in Brazil.
For his age, Santos continues to excel. On Friday night he scored his ninth goal of the season as part of a 4-2 win over Lyon for Strasbourg. It is the second game in a row that he has scored in and Santos is also wearing the captain's armband.
A reminder: Santos is on loan at Strasbourg, and he is 20. Another reminder: He is already a Chelsea player and was signed for a fee that could rise to £18million. He was bought as an 18-year-old and sent back to Brazil where he dominated at the Under-20 South American Championship.
Playing up the age groups, Santos was captain again and made a habit of scoring from midfield. He showed at that point that he had many strings to his bow. Santos is able to score in a variety of ways, whether it be clinical finishes, strong headers, or long-range bullets.
Over the course of the past 14 months he has refined that in Europe. Santos has been one of the best midfielders in France, if not the standalone standout for the division. He is certainly among the top loanees on the continent.
Such was his developmental curve, many believed Chelsea should have tried to recall him in January to act as competition and cover for Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez. With Romeo Lavia ruled out until March, only two players (plus the untrusted Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall) were available for Enzo Maresca in the first-team.
Santos has been riding high for over a year now, though. He was used as captain by Patrick Vieira, then-Strasbourg manager, within three months of his loan for the second half of last season. He is a natural leader and shows that in everything he does.
Instead of bringing him back over the winter, Chelsea opted to allow him the room to play regularly in an environment he had grown accustomed to. For Strasbourg it has helped them climb the table, where they now sit fifth and just one point off a Champions League spot.
Liam Rosenior's side have lost just once since the start of December. After an inconsistent start - culminating in a run of four straight defeats throughout November - they have won 10 of the past 13. There have been seven clean sheets in that time and only PSG have better form since the turn of the year.
On-loan Chelsea midfielder Andrey Santos celebrates during a Strasbourg game
On-loan Chelsea midfielder Andrey Santos celebrates during a Strasbourg game (Image: Philippe Lecoeur/FEP/Icon Sport)
Santos has been central to it all. Five of his 10 league goal involvements have come in 2025. His impact goes beyond the numbers and into the intangibles but his position as an elite player in France is undoubted.
For Under-21 players he has the most forward passes attempted and forward passes completed, interceptions, possession wins, headed goals, fouls suffered, and duels won. This is a player who also ranks top of all Ligue 1 players for tackles attempted, tackles won, fifth for dribbles tackled, inside the top 10 for blocks, and wins more than 60 per cent of his aerial duels. He is the complete package.
Santos is a game-changer, a match-winner, and has a unique blend of skills from midfield. When used in pre-season by Mauricio Pochettino and briefly under Maresca, Santos has tended to start from a deeper role but is just as capable of crashing the opposition box as he is taking the ball on the edge of his own.
It is the sort of player who adds life to matches and elevates teammates. His latest performance is evidence of all of this. Whether or not Chelsea should have exercised a recall option in January is now beside the point. His loan deal will finish at the end of this season and he will return.
What happens next remains to be seen. Santos was coy on where his future would be when asked in a recent interview but he also admitted he wanted to play with Estevao Willian for years to come. Chelsea are keen to assess Santos up close and plan to bring him into the first-team setup along with £22million signing Dario Essugo to add legs to the midfield.
It would be no surprise to see Santos quickly earn a place in the squad at Stamford Bridge. Everything he now does in France demands attention. Chelsea chose not to be sucked into the hype of bringing him back once already but now Santos is leaving no choice but to be taken extremely seriously.
He cannot be ignored and is a star of the current game, not just the future. The next steps are for Chelsea to find an effective way to integrate Santos. It should be a privilege rather than a problem.
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Chelsea flag prior the UEFA Champions League Quarter Final Leg One match between Chelsea FC and Real Madrid at Stamford Bridge. (Photo by Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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