Report: Chelsea Agrees to Premier League Record $130M Enzo Fernรกndez Transfer Fee
Chelsea's wild spending spree this winter continued in earnest on Tuesday.
The London club have reportedly agreed to pay Benfica's โฌ120 million release clause ($130.4 million) for Enzo Fernรกndez, per Sky Sports, which would represent the largest transfer fee in Premier League history.
David Ornstein of The Athletic reported earlier on Tuesday that Fernandez had been granted to undergo a physical in Portugal, a precursor to an agreement.
The previous Premier League record for a transfer fee was the ยฃ100 million ($123.1 million) Manchester City paid Aston Villa in 2021 to land Jack Grealish.
As Sky Sports' Kaveh Solhekol noted, the deal will bring new owner Todd Boehly's outlay on players since he joined the club in late May to nearly ยฃ600 million ($738.7 million). That has included defenders Wesley Fofana and Marc Cucurella and attackers Mykhaylo Mudryk and Raheem Sterling, among others.
Fernรกndez, 22, will be the most expensive of the bunch. The talented midfielder, who made five starts in Argentina's run to a World Cup title in December, should help solidify the center of the pitch for Chelsea, providing excellent playmaking.
In 17 Portuguese Primeira Liga starts for Benfica he's notched a goal and five assists.
The question for Chelsea is whether all of the turnover at the club and the new faces cycling into Stamford Bridge will lead to much short-term success. Chelsea's owner has been at the club since May. Manager Graham Potter has only been in place since September. The Blues have added a dizzying amount of new players in that time.
Even Potter seemed wary of Chelsea's wildly ambitious approach to the transfer market earlier in January.
"You need a squad that's balanced. You need a squad that's got the right amount of competition. I think we've got to be not necessarily careful, but I think you've just got to understand that we've got about 10 players unavailable," he told reporters at the time. "Obviously you can't just sign players to replace those because in the end, you have a squad of 30. You have to do the right thing and the window is complicated in January."
The early returns haven't been positiveโChelsea are 10th in the Premier League on 29 points, 10 points behind Manchester United for the final Champions League berth, albeit with a game in hand.
Fernandez should help. But Chelsea have a bloated squad, and one with a whole lot of new faces to incorporate.
