According to David Ornstein of the Athletic, Chelsea have agreed a fee of just under £12 million (€14 million) with FC Basel for Renato Veiga.
The 20 year old is set to have a medical at Cobham Training Centre before finalising a move to the Blues in the coming days.
FC Basel have sold plenty of players to Premier League clubs for decent fees in the recent past.
Zeki Amdouni joined Burnley for £15 million last summer, following on from Albian Ajeti to West Ham for £8 million, Mohamed Elyounoussi to Southampton for £16 million and, going back a bit further, Mohamed Salah to Chelsea for £11 million in 2014, with Veiga the next to join this pipe-line.
Who is Renato Veiga?
Renato Veiga is a 20 year old Portuguese player, we’ll come onto his position shortly, who was born in Lisbon, predominantly representing Sporting Clube de Portugal at youth level, but never making a senior appearances for the Lions.
He got his first taste of senior football at Augsburg, joining them for a six-month loan spell in January 2023, appearing 13 times, albeit he only started eight times for the Bundesliga strugglers, who only avoided relegation by a solitary point.
Nevertheless, he impressed enough to earn a move to FC Basel last summer for around £4 million, with Portuguese publication Record claiming that Sporting have a 10% sell-on clause, so a nice little windfall will be heading their way.
The RotBlau, who won eight successive Swiss Super League titles between 2010 and 2017, are going through a down period just at the moment, but last season was particularly bad, starting it by being dumped out of Europa Conference League qualifying by Kazakh side Tobol, before ultimately finishing eighth in the league, their lowest finish for 26 years.
Despite this, Renato Veiga caught the eye, especially his versatility, the majority of his 26 appearances coming as a defensive midfielder, but he can also be deployed at centre-back.
Liam Twomey in the Athletic notes that Veita’s profile is exactly what new Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca is looking for, describing him as “a left-sided defender who can invert from full-back into a defensive midfield role”, adding, given that he’s 6ft 3in, he address Chelsea’s perceived “lack of height”.
Veiga has also received international recognition, interestingly starting all seven of Portugal U21’s qualifiers for next summer’s European Championships at centre-back, opening his goal-scoring account at that level during a 6-1 hammering of Belarus at Estádio Cidade de Barcelos last October.
Chelsea continuing their strategy of signing lesser-known youngsters
Since Todd Boehly, Behdad Eghbali and José E. Feliciano have taken over Chelsea, they’ve been, by some significant distance, the biggest spenders in the global transfer market, a trend that’s set to continue this summer.
Already in this window, the Blues have bought Omari Kellyman (18 years old), for £19 million, Marc Guiu (18 years old) for £6 million and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (25 years old) for £30 million, with Tosin Adarabioyo arriving on a Bosman.
On top of this, 17 year old Kendry Páez will come in next summer for £17 million, with reports suggesting that deals to bring in 19 year old Caleb Wiley (£8.5 million) and 19 year old Aaron Anselmino (£14 million) are imminent.
Chelsea continue to stockpile young footballers as if supply is about to run out, with Wiley the latest to join the conveyor belt.
