Chelsea bid for Portuguese club rejected in blow to Todd Boehly plans

Nizaar Kinsella21 March 2023

Chelsea are re-assessing Portuguese clubs as part of their plans for a multi-club network, after having a £35million bid for Portimonense turned down.

Standard Sport revealed in September that Chelsea were in talks to buy Primeira Liga side Portimonense after co-owner Todd Boehly confirmed he wanted to set up a stable of clubs.

Chelsea have identified Portugal as a good country in which to buy a satellite team but their offer to purchase a 75 per cent stake in Portimonense has been rejected.

Portimonense have previously rejected a similar approach from Manchester City and do not think they need influence or investment from an English club.

Chelsea have consulted with Portuguese super-agent Jorge Mendes over clubs to consider in his homeland and he is now tasked with finding alternative options, having built a positive relationship with co-controlling owners Boehly and Behdad Eghbali.

The Blues want a club in Portugal to help them sign the best South American talent for less and at a younger age, as they could take advantage of more lenient work permit regulations in the country.

Chelsea signed Enzo Fernandez for a British transfer record fee of £107million in January, just six months after he moved from River Plate to Benfica for £9m.

Boehly and Eghbali want to build a multi-club model like Manchester City and the Red Bull football group, who own Leipzig and Salzburg.

They are looking at clubs in France, Belgium and Brazil as part of a project that is being led by president of business Tom Click.

RC Strasbourg president Marc Keller has confirmed Chelsea are in talks to purchase a stake in the French club. Chelsea are thought have had bids for their Lyon, Bordeaux and Sochaux-Montbeliard rejected, though the club has declined to comment.

Chelsea also had an approach turned down last year for Brazilian giants Santos.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in