By Chelsea have completed the double signing of Sporting midfielders Geovany Quenda and Dario Essugo. The transfer was for a combined fee of about £62.4m, the Portuguese club have said.
Winger Quenda, 17, will join Chelsea for a fee of up to £44m according to an announcement on the Sporting website,, external but will remain in Lisbon until the end of the 2025-26 season.
The teenager has broken into Sporting’s first team this season and made his Champions League debut in September.
Essugo, a 20-year-old defensive midfielder, will move to Stamford Bridge in the summer following a loan spell at Las Palmas. Sporting announced his transfer fee as £18.4m.
He has impressed in Spain, but has also picked up two red cards in his past four games.
Chelsea fans must wait a while to see Quenda. Essugo could join up with Enzo Maresca’s side. This would be for the inaugural Fifa Club World Cup this summer in the United States.
The Portuguese pair are the latest young players signed by the London club. The club has already confirmed moves for two other 17-year-olds this summer.
Brazilian Estevao Willian and Ecuadorian Kendry Paez will also move to Chelsea in the summer.
Who is Geovany Quenda?
“He is a very creative player. He is very young. He has a lot of potential to achieve,” Portuguese football journalist and pundit Mariana Fernandes told BBC Sport.
A right-winger with a left foot. He has a left foot but also likes to go through opponents with his right foot. This becomes very confusing for defenders to try and stop him.
“He is really quick, really smart and mature in the way he transforms the game.”
Quenda was born in the African nation of Guinea-Bissau. He moved to Portugal as a child. He joined a small club on the outskirts of Lisbon. Benfica scouts noticed him. He spent two years in their academy. Afterward, he moved closer to home and joined Sporting.
In 2023 he signed his first professional contract. While with the reserve team, he caught the eye of ex-Sporting manager Ruben Amorim. Ruben Amorim gave him his senior debut in the Portuguese Super Cup at the beginning of this campaign.
At just 17 years and 95 days, the Portugal Under-21 international scored in a 4-3 defeat by Porto. He became the club’s youngest ever goalscorer.
Quenda recorded 20 goal contributions in 33 appearances for Sporting’s under-23s last season. Now, he has 10 goals involvements in 44 games this campaign.
He was deployed on the wing to help both attack and defence under now Manchester United boss Amorim. However, he has moved into a more offensive role in a front three under Sporting’s new head coach Rui Borges.
“He is a very complete player, a very put together player,” Fernandes added. “He has the mentality that he always has to go back and help the team to defend. He doesn’t stay up front.
“I think the right word to describe Quenda is he is a very brave player.
“His main strength is one on one challenges. He is really strong on the duels with the ball at his feet. It is very rare for a defender here in Portugal to stop Quenda. Few can defeat him in a duel or one on one challenge.”
How Chelsea have signed ‘a generational talent’ for half price
Fernandes also told BBC Sport that Quendas had a 100m euro (£84m) release clause. However, Sporting would sell for about half that price with the right negotiations.
“Sporting almost had another season-and-a-half with the player. This situation allowed Chelsea to seize the opportunity,” Fernandes said.
“He is going to a team that explores youth and young players and I think that is what Chelsea saw.
“To seize the opportunity to sign a player now. In two seasons time, the player would be double the price. The player would be much harder to sign.”
He is impressing with his pace, strength, and technical ability. However, is he ready to step up to the Premier League level?
“He is a generational talent,” Ferandes believes.
“The mentality is there. Psychologically, he is also there. I think he is ready to play for Chelsea and to play in the Premier League.
“He will need to adapt to playing in a bigger league, a bigger club, with bigger challenges and bigger opponents.”
