Chelsea have completed the signing of Renato Veiga from FC Basel.
The Athletic reported last week that a deal worth €14million (£11.8m; $15.3m) had been agreed between the two clubs with no sell-on clause.
The 20-year-old has signed a seven-year contract with the option of a further 12 months to keep him at Stamford Bridge until at least 2031.
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“I’m absolutely buzzing to be here,” Veiga said. “This is one of the biggest clubs in England — the biggest for me — and I’m just really excited to get started.”
Capable of playing as left-sided centre-back, left-back or a No 6 in midfield, Veiga is expected to be used an inverted full-back and is viewed as a perfect fit for Enzo Maresca’s system. Maresca replaced Mauricio Pochettino as Chelsea head coach earlier this summer after leading Leicester City to promotion last season.
Veiga made 26 appearances in all competitions for FC Basel last term, providing two goals and one assist. He is a product of the Sporting Lisbon academy, before moving to Basel in 2023 following a loan spell at Ausburg.
Veiga joins Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Tosin Adarabioyo, Marc Guiu and Omari Kellyman as new additions at Chelsea this summer.
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Why Chelsea are signing Veiga
Analysis by Chelsea correspondent Liam Twomey
The acquisition of Veiga is another sign of Maresca’s influence on the recruitment strategy led by Chelsea’s co-sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley, following the arrival of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall from Leicester City.
Veiga, unlike Dewsbury-Hall, is not a player Maresca has worked with before. He does, however, fit a specific profile that the Italian is looking for to help implement his style of play at Stamford Bridge: a left-sided defender who can invert from full-back into a defensive midfield role when Chelsea are in possession.
Marc Cucurella is also viewed as capable of performing that role, having been deployed in a similar manner by Maresca’s predecessor Mauricio Pochettino in the final stretch of last season. Veiga, however, offers a more aerially imposing option: at 6ft 3in tall (190cm), he addresses what some have identified as a relative lack of height in Chelsea’s squad.
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Maresca will assess Veiga in pre-season and judge whether he is first-team ready or requires a loan spell to aid his development. He is essentially one year behind Riccardo Calafiori, who became a breakout star for Bologna last season after moving back to Italy from Basel in the summer of 2023 and has been widely touted as a transfer target for Chelsea in recent weeks.
Veiga’s modest transfer fee reflects that. Chelsea consider him an excellent value proposition, particularly considering that he is taller than Calafiori and has a cleaner injury history.
Above all he is the type of flexible, multi-positional player increasingly prized by progressive, possession-focused coaches like Maresca.
(Harry Langer/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)