Things went haywire again on Deadline Day. Chelsea were courting World Cup shooting star Enzo Fernandez to the end – and were finally awarded the contract at the last moment. It was far from the only spectacular transfer on this memorable Tuesday.
Shortly before 11 p.m. it was time. The always well-informed transfer reporter Fabrizio Romano typed his unmistakable “Here we go” is the keyboard. Enzo Fernandez is still allowed to join Chelsea after weeks of back and forth. There is talk of a transfer fee of 120 million euros. This makes the Argentinian World Cup star, who is moving from Benfica to London, the most expensive Premier League player in history.
In general, more money was paid in a winter transfer window: five years ago, Barça transferred 135 million euros for Coutinho to Liverpool – at that time their pockets were still full after the Neymar transfer. Fernandez is set to sign a contract with Chelsea until 2031. A contract for eight and a half (!) years, to cheat the financial fair play rules. The deal is expected to be officially announced on Wednesday.
After weeks of transfer poker involving Yann Sommer, Bayern Munich showed shortly before the end of the transfer window that transfers can be processed very quickly. João Cancelo, one of the most important players at Manchester City last year, had a difficult time in Pep Guardiola’s star ensemble after the World Cup and was hardly used again. The Bavarians sensed the chance and knocked – successfully.
After reports of a possible Cancelo transfer made the rounds for the first time on Monday, the deal will be fixed on Deadline Day: Cancelo will be on loan until the end of the season, and Bayern also has a purchase option of around 70 million euros.
The transfer of Tottenham’s Matt Doherty to Atlético Madrid is anything but bursting. A transfer that probably not many had on the bill. After Tottenham’s signing of Pedro Porro, Doherty knew his time in north London was up.
The burst request transfers
It was too good to be true. Isco to Union Berlin – a transfer that doesn’t really fit into the picture at all. A filigree technician in Urs Fischer’s troop of fighters. And yet the whole of Europe was looking forward to the iron games with the Spanish playmaker, who has won the Champions League five times with Real Madrid. But the deal fell through despite the medical check-up. The club and the player side are now blaming each other. Ultimately, Union and Isco could not agree. The 30-year-old remains without a club for the time being.
As if PSG didn’t already have enough offensive power, Paris St. Germain wanted to expand their star ensemble with Messi, Mbappé and Neymar with Hakim Zyiech, another noble technician. According to Fabrizio Romano, there were problems registering the player, so the deal fell through after all.
After Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure and Wout Weghorst’s loan commitment, it no longer looked as if Manchester United would be active again in this transfer window. However, just before the end of the transfer window, it became clear that Christian Eriksen would be out for several months with an ankle injury. So the Red Devils felt compelled to react and at the last minute they hooked up Marcel Sabitzer, who had recently played as a backup player at Bayern Munich. It remains to be seen whether the Austrian can fill the big gap left by Eriksen.
Arsenal actually wanted to sign Brighton’s Moises Caicedo. But Brighton also turned down a €70m offer for the midfield terrier from Ecuador. So the Gunners had to look elsewhere when looking for a new midfielder – and found one at Chelsea. Instead of Caicedo, Jorginho now came, a completely different type of player than Caicedo, but certainly no less talented. So competition for Granit Xhaka in the Arsenal midfield.
A national player also changed clubs on Deadline Day. We are talking about Haris Seferovic, who only switched to Galatasaray Istanbul on loan from Benfica in July. With the Turks, however, the striker has hardly had any time left, so a transfer was foreseeable. Seferovic is now on loan to Spain to Celta Vigo, currently 16th in LaLiga, until the end of the season. Already in the 2013/14 season Seferovic played in the top Spanish league, at that time for Real Sociedad.
From a Swiss point of view, the transfer of Filip Stojilkovic is also worth mentioning. The 23-year-old moves from Sion to Darmstadt, the current leaders of the 2nd Bundesliga, and signs a contract there until 2027.
