Chelsea winners and losers from Club World Cup as key transfer question answered

In partnership with

Evening Standard

·14 Juli 2025

Chelsea winners and losers from Club World Cup as key transfer question answered

Enzo Maresca has been given plenty of food for thought for next season after memorable Stateside campaign

Your matchday briefing on Chelsea, featuring team news and expert analysis from Malik Ouzia

Video OneFootball

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Chelsea won the Club World Cup in spectacular fashion on Sunday as they put Paris Saint-Germain to the sword in a one-sided final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

The Blues were far from the favourites heading into the inaugural edition of the expanded 32-team competition but grew into it and beat the European kings in its showpiece to be crowned champions of the world.

Cole Palmer scored twice and Joao Pedro once as Chelsea comprehensively dispatched PSG in the final.

Plenty of players boosted their chances of regular game time in the coming season, but that did come at the expense of one or two others. Here, Standard Sport assesses the biggest winners and losers from Chelsea’s trophy-winning campaign across the pond.

Winners

The biggest winner of the month. He has been a Chelsea player for less than a fortnight, but Joao Pedro has already made quite an impact.

The £60million signing from Brighton was recruited as a versatile forward but after just three appearances and two starts may have already claimed the role of Chelsea’s starting striker for himself, ahead of Nicolas Jackson and Liam Delap.

His three goals — two against Fluminense and one against PSG — were all very confidently taken and his movement off the ball is sure to keep causing defences real problems.

Liam Delap

Delap’s arrival from Ipswich for £30m appeared to represent Chelsea signing a striker of a similar level to Jackson, and it left many fans confused as to which would top the pecking order in manager Enzo Maresca’s mind.

The last month has suggested that it will very much be Delap who gets the bulk of the game time. His goal against ES Tunis in the group stage was a fine example of his use of strength and physicality, while appearances off the bench later in the tournament showed he is up for the fight for starts against fellow new recruit Pedro.

New arrival: Liam Delap showed plenty of promising glimpses of what he will offer Chelsea next season

Getty Images

Robert Sanchez

If Sanchez came into the competition with questions over his continued status as Chelsea’s No1, he comes out of it in fine fettle.

Sanchez won the Golden Glove for his performances at the Club World Cup, and Opta data shows that conceding only five goals from an expected tally of 9.2 meant he prevented more than any other goalkeeper in the tournament, including Thibaut Courtois, Manuel Neuer and Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Sanchez was only starting because the Blues failed to get a deal over the line to sign Mike Maignan, but the Chelsea hierarchy may feel now that there is no need to seek out a new No1.

Pedro Neto

No Chelsea player scored more goals at the Club World Cup than Pedro Neto, whose three strikes were as many as Palmer and Pedro tallied.

The Portuguese winger has proven himself incredibly versatile over the past month, stretching defences and adding a goal threat whether deployed down the left wing or unleashed on the right.

The arrival of Jamie Gittens and imminent sale of Noni Madueke cancel out, as far as Neto is concerned. He can expect to have greater prominence next season than he did last term, the turn of the year having seen him really step up.

Losers

Nicolas Jackson

This has been a magnificent month for Chelsea. It has been a rather disastrous one for Jackson.

The striker has rather tested the patience of much of the fanbase over the past two years but ultimately retained his place throughout as the starting striker because a better alternative was nowhere to be seen.

Now, though, there is one, if not two centre forwards ahead of him in Maresca’s thinking.

While it is hard to see Chelsea selling the Senegal international this summer as things stand, it is equally hard to see how he can remain the first-choice No9 after Delap and Pedro’s goals and performances, plus another needless Jackson red card against Flamengo.

Ill-discipline: Nicolas Jackson was sent off again for Chelsea in their shock group stage defeat by Flamengo

Chelsea FC via Getty Images

Filip Jorgensen

Jorgensen may have been the man in goal when Chelsea won their first piece of silverware under Maresca, the Conference League in May, but that was his reward for playing throughout that European campaign rather than an indication that he was moving ahead of Sanchez in the manager’s thinking.

The Danish international was always reasonably unlikely to become the new No1 ahead of next season, and that likelihood has decreased even further following Sanchez’s inspired performances in the US.

If Chelsea go on to sign any more goalkeepers between now and September 1, Jorgensen risks being demoted to third choice.