17 year old now training with Chelsea – transfer to Europe prepared for January 2026 | OneFootball

Chelsea’s quest to dominate the market for young players worldwide continues.

Some of them are relatively established and well known – 17 year old Geovany Quenda, who will join next summer, is already a regular for Sporting CP.

Others are real fresh faces – according to Kieran Gill’s Chelsea Confidential for the Daily Mail, the Blues are pushing to sign 17 year old Senegal winger Yaya Dieme.

The youngster has been on trial with the Blues, training at Cobham, and appears to have impressed. Gill says Achirou Gaoh, one of the new scouts hired to help get deeper into the untapped corners of African nations, has been with young Dieme in London.

Dieme comes from Patrick Vieira’s Diambars football academy in Senegal. He has already helped his team win the African Cup of Nations at Under 17 level.

Like Pape Daouda Diong, another Senegalese youngster snapped up by BlueCo in recent years, Diame will start in France with our sister club Strasbourg. He can move there in January once he’s 18. The Alsatians will hopefully play him (along with Diong) and if they live up to their potential, a move to Stamford Bridge could be in their future.

Senegalese pair start on long road to Chelsea first team action

Yaya Dieme prepares for a Senegal Under 17s game. (Photo by Marcio Machado/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)

We actually first heard word of this back in January, when Fabrizio Romano mentioned it on his Twitter page:

“Strasbourg have agreed deal to sign 17 year old winger Yaya Diémé to join from Senegal from 2026 when he turns 18,” the insider wrote.

“BlueCo Group (with potential future view on Chelsea move) have been following and monitoring him for months and now closed a deal.”

It’s a long way to Chelsea from where Dieme and Diong are now – we wonder if either will end up making it?