Geovany Quenda, Chelsea’s hot prospect who will not be at Stamford Bridge this season
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6540876/2025/08/10/geovany-quenda-Chelsea-future-analysis/
It took a little more than seven minutes for Chelsea men’s first-team squad to be welcomed individually onto the pitch during Wednesday’s trophy celebration at Stamford Bridge — and that was without 100 per cent attendance.
Levi Colwill was absent after injuring his anterior cruciate ligament on Monday. There was also no Christopher Nkunku who, as was detailed in this week’s Transfer DealSheet, has been excused from the start of Chelsea’s shortened pre-season to explore a potential move away.
Last to make their entrances to the celebration were Chelsea’s confirmed summer signings: Liam Delap, Joao Pedro, Jamie Gittens, Jorrel Hato and Estevao. The sight of them walking out one after another to join the new Club World Cup champions underlined that Enzo Maresca’s stacked squad is fast becoming the most competitive club environment in world football.
Competition may become even fiercer before the transfer deadline on September 1, and particularly in the attacking positions. Chelsea have stepped up talks with Manchester United to sign winger Alejandro Garnacho, and informal discussions continue regarding RB Leipzig playmaker Xavi Simons. Even if further arrivals are dependent on departures — Nicolas Jackson and Tyrique George are also attracting suitors — it is already clear that Maresca will navigate this season with an enviable array of options in the final third.
Another bright young attacker has already committed to testing himself at Chelsea: Sporting CP winger Geovany Quenda, one of the most exciting teenage footballers in Europe, will move to Stamford Bridge in the summer of 2026 in a transfer worth around €47.5million (£40m; $55m).
Geovany Quenda, pictured in a pre-season friendly against Sunderland in July, will join Chelsea next summer (Gualter Fatia/Getty Images)
The size of the deal reflects the strength of Chelsea’s belief in the potential of Quenda, who turned 18 at the end of April. He is the ninth-ranked player in Football Benchmark’s Golden Boy Index in partnership with Tuttosport, two spots higher than Hato and 21 places higher than the next Portuguese prospect, Braga winger Roger Fernandes.
His breakthrough 2024-25 season yielded two goals and five assists, but more eye-catching are the numbers that highlight just how heavily involved he was: Quenda featured in all of Sporting’s 34 league games, starting 26 times and playing 2,253 minutes for a team that retained the Primeira Liga title and lifted the Taca de Portugal (Portuguese Cup) despite losing head coach Ruben Amorim to Manchester United in November. He also appeared in all 10 of their Champions League games, starting eight times.
What comes next may be even more important — the arc of Quenda’s final season at Sporting will go a long way towards determining the level of momentum he carries with him to Stamford Bridge next summer, when he will further reinforce Maresca’s formidable wing rotation.
Sources close to the player, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to The Athletic to protect relationships, indicate that Quenda knows the significance of the season ahead.
His summer holiday after scoring three times in the group stage for Portugal in the European Under-21 Championship — punctuated by a rasping right-footed shot into the top corner against Poland that circulated widely among Chelsea fans online — consisted of a week spent with friends in the Algarve. Then it was straight back to work on a specialised fitness plan focused on muscle strengthening and injury prevention.
Quenda has readied his body for a heavier load this season as Sporting balance three domestic competitions with Champions League participation. To do so, he will have to unseat Geny Catamo, who is the starting right-winger in the 4-2-3-1 system that coach Rui Borges has pivoted to since Viktor Gyokeres left for Arsenal.
Last week, in the Supertaca Candido de Oliveira (Portuguese Super Cup) final against Benfica, Catamo started, with Quenda coming off the bench. Sporting lost 1-0. The 18-year-old’s presence in the squad had been in doubt. During Sporting’s title celebrations last season, and after their win over Benfica in the Taca de Portugal final, Quenda had worn a T-shirt referencing an offensive phrase that team-mate Ricardo Esgaio had allegedly said to Benfica captain Nicolas Otamendi in the final minutes of a fiery league meeting between the two clubs in May. Sporting defender Zeno Debast posted a picture of the T-shirt on social media. The Portuguese Football Federation handed Quenda a two-match suspension.
Both players were fined and suspended after Benfica filed a formal complaint, but Sporting succeeded in postponing the punishments by submitting an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
The ban is still hanging over Quenda’s head, complicating his task of regaining his starting spot in the early weeks of the new campaign. But in a press conference on Thursday before Sporting’s first league match of the season against Casa Pia, a 2-0 win, Borges sounded optimistic that the winger could make a leap.
“He’s been doing fantastically well,” Borges said of Quenda, as reported by O Jogo. “He’s a kid who’s doing very well, unlike what happened at the end of last season, when he dropped off a bit, maybe because of everything that’s happened to him (with the transfer). We can’t forget that he’s an 18-year-old kid, and his performance dropped off.
Quenda celebrates scoring against Estrela da Amadora in March (Patricia de Melo Moreira/AFP via Getty Images)
“This year, he’s doing very well. He just needs an opportunity, just like Geny Catamo. He’s been doing fantastically well, and he’ll have a great season.”
Chelsea are watching closely, but Quenda remains a Sporting player until next summer. Quenda is said to be well aware that there is considerable room for individual growth in Sporting’s post-Gyokeres attack and he is keen to scale up his influence and production in the final third. Above all, Quenda wants to leave the club that gave him his professional platform with another Portuguese league title.
Some in Portugal have compared Quenda to Bukayo Saka, who similarly spent his early years on both flanks, at times with greater defensive responsibilities, before specialising on the right wing. But those who know Quenda say the 18-year-old’s personal benchmark is a peer in age: Barcelona phenomenon Lamine Yamal, who might already be the best winger in the world.
It is an intimidatingly high standard for any footballer to set themselves, but Quenda is not lacking in self-belief. It is why he has chosen to take the No 7 at Sporting this season, a shirt number that has developed a reputation among supporters for being cursed ever since the legendary Luis Figo wore it before departing for Barcelona in 1995.
Within five years of leaving Sporting, Figo was awarded the Ballon d’Or. Chelsea firmly believe Quenda can also become one of the world’s best wingers. If all goes to plan, the next 10 months in Portugal will better equip him to rise above the stiff competition he will encounter at Stamford Bridge and scale similar heights.
