Jamie Gittens

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Inside Jamie Gittens’ transfer to Chelsea: Talks last summer, Bayern interest, friends reunited

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6479998/2025/07/10/jamie-gittens-Chelsea-dortmund-transfer/

Jamie Gittens has been destined for Chelsea for some time.

As far back as January, the west Londoners were in pole position to bring the Reading-born winger back to England after approaching five years in Germany, but had to survive a flurry of late interest from rival clubs and a stubborn Borussia Dortmund negotiation.

Chelsea were close to completing the transfer before their departure for the ongoing Club World Cup in the United States, submitting two bids on June 10. Ultimately, while the second offer came close to matching Dortmund’s valuation, both clubs believed there was no need to rush.

That was especially true given Gittens had been a target for Chelsea since 2023, which is when scouts started to be sent out to monitor him. The Premier League club first held formal discussions with Dortmund over him in summer 2024, then again in last season’s winter transfer window.

After a cooling-off period which allowed both teams to compete in the Club World Cup, the negotiations continued in America. There is a good rapport between the clubs and when their respective tournament training bases overlapped in Florida, talks resumed between the Chelsea delegation and Sebastian Kehl, the Dortmund sporting director, with a breakthrough occurring on Friday June 27, the day before Chelsea beat Benfica 4-1 in Charlotte, North Carolina, to advance to the quarter-finals.

With an agreement struck in principle, the 20-year-old left Dortmund’s camp the following day, undergoing his medical on Sunday and Monday, before completing his transfer on Thursday, July 3, for a fee of £48.5million ($66m) with a potential £3.5m more in add-ons.

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Gittens cannot play for Chelsea in the Club World Cup, on account of having appeared for Dortmund in the group stage, but he has still been involved in training sessions and now has valuable time to integrate socially with his new team-mates.

 

Gittens playing at the Club World Cup for Dortmund (Hendrik Deckers/Borussia Dortmund via Getty Images)

Dortmund consider this a victory for all parties. Gittens joined them on virtually a free transfer from Manchester City’s academy in summer 2020, with Lars Ricken — the club’s CEO for sport — central to his recruitment and now, five years later, rubber-stamping his sale. He had assimilated well, speaking good German and conducting some club interviews in his second language, and there had been hope that Gittens would stay longer and develop into a Bundesliga star.

However, given the player communicated his desire to leave in the late spring and his form tailing off during the second half of the 2024-25 domestic season, the club consider this to have been an excellent negotiation by Kehl and Ricken and are happy to have had their valuation met.

Externally, understanding that valuation has been difficult because of the sliding nature of Gittens’ release clause. Had Dortmund failed to qualify for European competition next season, he would have been available for far less — closer to €40million (£34.5m).

As it was, while Gittens was in and out of the Dortmund side in the final weeks, the team mounted a rallying comeback, rising from 10th in the table to fourth across the last eight games. It maximised Gittens’ value and qualified Dortmund for the Champions League, significantly altering their budget; a deal for Gittens could not have been concluded until those variables were known.

But Chelsea still believe they are getting fine value and that Gittens is a signing to satisfy many of their objectives.

 

Gittens being unveiled by Chelsea (Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)

They believe he is one of the finest under-21 wingers in European football, but have been equally attracted by his character and by how much first-team experience he has. Gittens has played over 100 senior games at club level and proven himself a difference-maker in big games in the Bundesliga and the Champions League, showing he is more than mere theory.

And he fits the profile of player that Chelsea want to use, with one of their prime objectives for this window from the outset being to acquire a right-footed left-winger.

There is a gap in their ranks to be filled due to the club deciding not to turn Jadon Sancho’s loan from Manchester United last season into a permanent move, while Mykhailo Mudryk has been provisionally suspended since December for failing a doping test. The Football Association charged the Ukraine international with violating its anti-doping rules last month and he now faces a lengthy ban.

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Gittens was Chelsea’s first-choice target for the role ahead of other players they considered, including Athletic Club’s Spain international Nico Williams. While not a driving force within recruitment, head coach Enzo Maresca spoke with the player, too, and is convinced Gittens can be successful within his system.

The only significant threat during this process has been Dortmund’s domestic rivals and serial German champions Bayern Munich, whose interest in Gittens fluctuated and was muddled by a range of factors.

One of Bayern’s priorities over the past year has been to rejuvenate their wide forward positions. That was the thinking behind the signing of Michael Olise, now 23, from Crystal Palace last summer, but the Bavarian club accepted they needed further renewal, even though Olise proved a triumph in his first season.

Kingsley Coman was getting older (he turned 29 last month) and both he and the club were open to a parting of ways in January; Coman could still leave this summer. There is no chance Serge Gnabry (30 next week) will depart in the current window, but his contract is on course to expire at the end of the coming season and the odds, currently, are against a renewal.

In the autumn of 2024, Gittens was among the standout attacking performers in the Bundesliga. And, in November, shortly after he scored a brilliant breakaway goal against Bayern, their interest became public. But Gittens was never the definitive option for them, more one among a group of candidates.

In any case, there was a complication: Florian Wirtz.

Bayern’s mid-range planning was shaped by Wirtz in two ways. Firstly, the financial parameters of any proposed deal to sign him would have limited any other transfer business. While Wirtz eventually joined Liverpool for £116million, any fee between Bayern and Bayer Leverkusen, who were antagonised by their public declarations of interest in Wirtz, would have been higher.

 

Bayern were interested in Wirtz, who signed for Liverpool (Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

Secondly, with Bayern confident of signing Wirtz, the plan had been to adapt the team in a way that allowed him to play alongside Jamal Musiala, with Olise on the right and Musiala and Wirtz rotating between the central and left positions. Even when it was accepted that Mathys Tel would leave the club (he has joined Tottenham following last season’s loan there), that focus on Wirtz deprioritised Gittens and every other natural winger that Bayern had been following.

By the time it became clear Wirtz was moving to Anfield (by when Leroy Sane had also, unexpectedly, decided against extending his Bayern contract, choosing to move to Galatasaray of Turkey instead), it was too late for the Munich giants to pivot. Their first choice was Athletic Club’s Williams. Milan’s Rafael Leao was another focus of interest. Gittens, as he had been back in the autumn, was part of that shortlist, too.

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There was no formal contact between Bayern and Dortmund in the weeks before the move was finalised. Approaches were made directly to Gittens’ camp, but it was made clear terms had been agreed with Chelsea and that he was committed to moving to Stamford Bridge.

Part of Chelsea’s appeal is self-evident: a Premier League club competing in the Champions League. For somebody hoping to be part of Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for the 2026 World Cup, it is a logical move.

It also reunites him with players with whom he’s played before. Gittens was part of the same England Under-19 squad as Liam Delap and Carney Chukwuemeka in 2022, when they won that age group’s European Championship.

Joe Shields, Chelsea’s co-director for recruitment and talent, was previously head of academy recruitment at City, and partially responsible for bringing Gittens to their academy (from the youth setup at Reading) in 2018. Delap, another City graduate, has already joined Chelsea this summer, while contemporaries Cole Palmer and Romeo Lavia have also become central to their future, having taken the same route south from the blue half of Manchester.

While not the key factor in Gittens’ decision, the above was prominent among them, and helpful in convincing him that this step, which is a major move in the context of his career, is the right one.

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0 replies???

[Fernando 6,585]

Upgrade to Sancho. 

So glad we didn't took Sancho buy and send him back to replace him with him. 

Well done Club.