Chelsea Winger Angelo Completes Move To Saudi Club Al-Nassr

Chelsea’s Angelo Gabriel has completed a £19.1m move to Saudi Arabian side Al-Nassr, having never made a competitive appearance for the Blues.

The 19-year-old Brazilian joined Chelsea in July 2023 for a fee of £13m. He made 24 appearances on loan at Strasbourg last season.

Angelo will join up with former Premier League stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Sadio Mane at Al-Nassr, after the Saudi transfer window closed on Monday.

The winger became the youngest player in Brazilian top-flight history in 2020, making his debut for Santos aged just 15 years and 308 days.

He went on to play 129 times for his boyhood club, before switching to Stamford Bridge last year.

In total, Angelo has made 154 senior appearances, scoring five goals and adding 14 assists.

Chelsea’s Angelo Sale Will Help Ease PSR Worries

With Chelsea’s spending under Todd Boehly coming under increasing scrutiny, sales like this will go a long way towards balancing the books.

In the last five seasons, the London club have spent £1.83 billion. This figure is around double that of the next-closest team, Manchester United, who have spent £954m in the same period.

And around £1.1bn of Chelsea’s spending has been since Todd Boehly took charge in 2022.

As clubs like Everton and Nottingham Forest suffer points deductions, and Manchester City deal with 115 charges for alleged financial breaches, Chelsea must maintain a steady stream of income from player sales.

Angelo’s move to Saudi represents a £6m profit on the £13m fee Chelsea paid to Santos last summer.

The deal takes Chelsea’s income from player sales this window up to near £200m.

These sales of young players for profit are vital in counterbalancing the £200m or so spent on 11 new signings over the summer.

Are Chelsea Playing Football Manager In Real Life?

While many have criticised Chelsea’s tactic of stockpiling young talent, the potential to sell players on for profit after a couple of years demonstrates the logic behind their strategy.

In a model familiar to any seasoned ‘Football Manager’ player, Chelsea are buying up as many young wonder-kids as they can find.

Any who turn into superstars can be kept and brought into the team. Those who don’t reach their potential can be sold on for profit after a few years to keep the cash flow healthy.

Whether on not the method will be as effective in real life as it is in the game is yet to be determined.