Chelsea agree deal to sign Renato Veiga from FC Basel
Chelsea have agreed a deal with FC Basel to sign Renato Veiga.
A fee of €14million has been agreed between the two clubs with no sell-on clause.
A medical has been scheduled in London with the 20-year-old Portugal Under-20 international expected to sign a contract until 2032 with the Stamford Bridge club.
A left-sided centre-back, left-back or a No 6 in midfield, Veiga is expected to be used an inverted full-back and is viewed as a perfect fit for Enzo Maresca’s system.
Maresca, formerly of Leicester City, replaced Mauricio Pochettino in charge earlier this summer.
Veiga made 26 appearances in all competitions for FC Basel last season, scoring two goals and adding a single assist.
Should a deal progress he will join Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Tosin Adarabioyo, Marc Guiu and Omari Kellyman as new signings at Chelsea this summer.
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Analysis by Chelsea correspondent Liam Twomey
The acquisition of Veiga is another sign of Maresca’s influence on the recruitment strategy led by Chelsea’s co-sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley, following the arrival of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall from Leicester City.
Veiga, unlike Dewsbury-Hall, is not a player Maresca has worked with before. He does, however, fit a specific profile that the Italian is looking for to help implement his style of play at Stamford Bridge: a left-sided defender who can invert from full-back into a defensive midfield role when Chelsea are in possession.
Marc Cucurella is also viewed as capable of performing that role, having been deployed in a similar manner by Maresca’s predecessor Mauricio Pochettino in the final stretch of last season. Veiga, however, offers a more aerially imposing option: at 6ft 3in tall (190cm), he addresses what some have identified as a relative lack of height in Chelsea’s squad.
Maresca will assess Veiga in pre-season and judge whether he is first-team ready or requires a loan spell to aid his development. He is essentially one year behind Riccardo Calafiori, who became a breakout star for Bologna last season after moving back to Italy from Basel in the summer of 2023 and has been widely touted as a transfer target for Chelsea in recent weeks.
Veiga’s modest transfer fee reflects that. Chelsea consider him an excellent value proposition, particularly considering that he is taller than Calafiori and has a cleaner injury history.
Above all he is the type of flexible, multi-positional player increasingly prized by progressive, possession-focused coaches like Maresca.
(Harry Langer/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
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