Fabrizio Romano’s Daily Briefing for Caughtoffside has some interesting reading for Chelsea fans.
He noted, as many of us did, that standing behind the star of the show Kendry Paez in posh seats at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night was another young star – Pape Diong.
The willowy 17 year old is one of African football’s brightest talents, and Romano says he will join the Chelsea “group” in the summer when he’s 18 and able to move to Europe. The idea seems to be to park him at our new sister club Strasbourg while he develops.
It’s part of the larger drive to dominate the youth recruitment world, and at least those in charge have cast the net a little further than just South America this time.
Diong will be an interesting one to watch – his physicality helps him to dominate at the level he plays at now, and he will have to adjust to the men’s game where he’s no longer able to rely on that.
