OFFICIAL: Chelsea backup with 18 appearances completes strange move | OneFootball

Juventus have just announced the loan signing of Renato Veiga from Chelsea.

We await further news from the likes of Fabrizio Romano on the details of the deal – what the loan fee will be, if there’s a permanent option and so on.

Thus concludes (at least for now) one of the strangest short stories of a player at Chelsea for a while. To recap the odd tale:

1) Veiga signs for Chelsea in the summer for €12m as a total unknown from Basel, with no rumours building up to it and with very few people knowing who he is. He seems delighted to be here.

2) Veiga plays as Marc Cucurella’s backup for the season so far, making 18 appearances for the Blues, mainly at left back in the Conference League and the cups.

3) Veiga decides he’s not playing enough and pushes for a move. Chelsea loan him to Juventus.

What comes next? We really have no idea. Every Tweet surrounding this move has focused on the fact that Veiga wants to play more and play at centre back in order to guarantee his place at World Cup 2026 with Portugal.

Well, he’s made his debut for Portugal and been a regular for Roberto Martinez since he moved to Chelsea – clearly he was doing well enough to get in the squads and in the team, even with just cup games under his belt.

Clearly starting at centre back for Juventus is an upgrade – but we’re not so sure he’s as guaranteed that role as much as he clearly believes he is. Still, good luck to him!

Chelsea’s motives even harder to understand

Renato Veiga smiles in his Juventus unveiling.

From Chelsea’s point of view, the whole move is even more puzzling. You buy a backup player, use them, and then… loan them? Who is our Cucurella backup now? Why not keep Veiga around if he’s clearly useful to the squad? Is improving his potential sale value by loaning him out really worth weakening our team? Clearly so…