Enzo Fernandez: Chelsea called out for pursuit by Benfica boss

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·5 January 2023

Enzo Fernandez: Chelsea called out for pursuit by Benfica boss

Benfica manager Roger Schmidt has called out Chelsea for their pursuit of Enzo Fernandez.

Fernandez was extremely impressive for Argentina during the World Cup in Qatar.

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The 21-year-old won the Young Player of the Tournament award as Argentina emerged victorious.

Chelsea have been heavily linked with a move for the midfielder following the tournament.

And, with Chelsea’s interest well known, Fernandez flew to Argentina for New Year’s Eve without his club’s consent.

Schmidt has now gone in on the Blues for making Fernandez ‘crazy’.

The German boss has detailed how Chelsea have gone about their interest in Fernandez and has called their actions ‘unacceptable’.

Schmidt said, per Portuguese outlet Record: “Enzo is a good guy and an extraordinary player, we want him to stay, the situation is not easy, he played in the World Cup, won the World Cup, had proposals, there is a lot of money at stake.

“He is a young man player, this is confusing, we all understand this. But he is an excellent person.

“He was not authorized to go to Argentina, it is not acceptable, there will be consequences, I will not say which ones.

“We do not want to sell him, neither I nor the president. we know that there is a release clause, if he wants to leave and someone violates the clause, maybe we lose the player.

“There is a club that wants him, they tried to attract him, but they know that they can only have him if they pay the clause. It’s disrespectful to all of us, to Benfica, they’re driving the player crazy, they pretend they want to pay the clause and then they want to negotiate.

“About Enzo is all I’m going to say and I’m not going to answer any more questions about it.”

Whether Chelsea decide to activate Fernandez’s release clause of £106 million remains to be seen.

If they do, Fernandez would become the most expensive player in Premier League history.