Sporting CP confirm fee in Chelsea's double Geovany Quenda & Dario Essugo transfer | OneFootball

Sporting CP have confirmed that a full agreement is in place with Chelsea for the double permanent transfer of emerging talents Geovany Quenda and Dario Essugo.

Chelsea have made it their business in recent years to recruit young players with long-term potential and ripe for development, and 17-year-old Quenda in particular is considered one of the top prospects anywhere on the continent.

Buying talent doesn't come cheap, though, and Sporting have confirmed the deal with Chelsea is worth up to €74.4m (£62.3m) for both players - including add-ons.

Quenda, who was heavily linked with Manchester United after making his breakthrough in Lisbon under Ruben Amorim, accounts for the majority of that amount, at €52m (£43.6m). With only minimal add-ons worth €1.4m (£1.1m), nearly all of the fee is guaranteed.

For Essugo, currently on loan with Las Palmas in La Liga, it is a fixed and total €22.3m (£18.7m).

Both will complete the current season with their respective teams. While Quenda is set to stay at Sporting for the 2025/26 campaign, Essugo will link up with Chelsea in the summer.

Quenda is the more expensive part of the double deal / Eurasia Sport Images/GettyImages

After playing for Sporting's B team in Portugal's third tier last season, Quenda was promoted to the first-team squad ahead of the current campaign. He was initially a staple in Amorim's 3-4-3 system as a right wing-back as the team won each of its first 11 Liga Portugal games.

A tactical shift following Amorim's departure to Manchester United has more recently seen Quenda operating higher up the pitch on the opposite flank as a more conventional left winger. If nothing else, it highlights the Portugal international's impressive versatility.

Essugo has been trained by Sporting since the age of nine and made a surprise first-team debut less than a week after his 16th birthday in 2021 - also under Amorim's guidance.

The midfielder spent the next few seasons split between the B team and the senior squad, before playing regularly on loan at top flight side Chaves in the second half of 2023/24. He has since started all 17 La Liga games for Las Palmas he has been available for since his late September debut.