Chelsea have confirmed that new signing Dario Essugo will wear the No.14 next season after joining from Sporting CP. The midfielder takes over from Joao Felix, in a decision which points towards a transfer for the former Atletico Madrid attacker.
Felix spent half of the 2024/25 campaign on loan at Milan after being left as a peripheral player under Enzo Maresca. He is now set to leave Chelsea for a third time with the club expected to explore both permanent and temporary solutions in the upcoming months.
Essugo, in contrast, is set to for a role with the first team squad at the Club World Cup in America. He will provide competition and backup to Moises Caicedo in the centre of the park.
Felix will not be heading to the States despite seeing Chelsea spend £45million for his signature last year. He only started three Premier League games in the first half of the season, scoring once and assisting once from 12 appearances. There is no mention of him in the statement about Essugo’s shirt number.
Instead, Felix was left as a late substitute option at best for Maresca and usually got his game time in the Conference League. Playing second fiddle to Cole Palmer in attack, Felix was also behind Jadon Sancho on the left.
His move has proved disastrous, especially after Chelsea spent £11million to loan him from Madrid in 2023 for just six months. Felix, like Chelsea’s other loanees, is not expected to be included in the travelling Club World Cup squad set to be announced on Wednesday.
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Andrey Santos is the only returning player believed to be on his way in. Mike Penders will officially join from Genk over the summer and will also be involved, but he was not on loan last season, instead completing the year in Belgium before making the move to England.
The impact of Chelsea’s squad for the newly revamped FIFA tournament is likely to be sizeable on certain players, Felix among them, with transfers to follow. Chelsea are ready to sell Raheem Sterling, Axel Disasi, and Renato Veiga as well.
Armando Broja and Carney Chukwuemeka also don’t have a future at Stamford Bridge, but this move to hand Essugo Felix’s old shirt number comes as close to confirmation that he is an outsider to Maresca’s plans.
Trevoh Chalobah previously wore the top but had it stripped last summer after being made available for transfer. Felix took on the shirt only for he and Chalobah to cross paths in and out of the club in January.
Chalobah would eventually take on the vacant No.23 shirt, which had been left by Conor Gallagher after his own sale. Chelsea purchased Felix from Atletico after agreeing to move Gallagher on in a bid to improving their financial situation.
Felix was offered a way out of an initial struggle back at Chelsea but could not make much of an impact in Italy either. He only scored three goals at San Siro with one of those coming in Serie A.
Essugo will be aiming to put this noise behind him as he seeks to carve out a path of his own. “It’s a big step to make in my early career,” he told the Chelsea media team.
“Every player dreams of getting to a big club, and Chelsea is no exception. It’s a massive club and I’m feeling proud and very happy to be here. Chelsea showed big interest in me.
“When that happens, you can’t turn it down. When my Dad told me Chelsea were interested, I was very happy and here we are now!”
