Diego Moreira opens up on Chelsea exit

Diego Moreira admits ‘it wasn’t an easy decision’ to leave Chelsea for Lyon, considering he only arrived at the club this summer.

Chelsea have forged a reputation for signing as many exciting young talents as they can through the transfer window. Since taking over the club in 2022, Todd Boehly has overseen three transfer windows, spending north of a billion pounds on new players.

A chunk of those new signings have been young players, and to put a bracket on those, they were all under the age of 25. There were reports the club even rejected the idea of signing certain players because they were above that age bracket.

In the midst of the sea of players that arrived during the summer window, Chelsea also managed to find an agreement with Benfica-B for Diego Moreira. The 19-year-old forward came with a big reputation for his exploits with the Portuguese side’s youth teams.

Moreira may have wanted to make an impact in this young squad at Chelsea and prove a point. The door under Mauricio Pochettino seems open for many players in the current roster, as the manager still is not clear about his absolute starting eleven.

Yet, Chelsea chose to accept Lyon’s request to sign Moreira only a short time after he arrived at Stamford Bridge. From his comments that appeared on Olympique Et Lyonnais via Sport Witness, Moreira seemed disappointed to leave the Bleus so soon after signing for the club.

Moreira said, “I signed for Chelsea and here I am on loan to OL.”

“It’s a big club, with very great players who have been there. It was done on the gong, but I knew the club had an interest in me, so the decision was easy.”

Any player in Moreira’s position will have felt a sense of disappointment, considering how things panned out for him. The 19-year-old forward may have arrived here with some ambitions to make a mark in the team, but his immediate departure could put a pause on those plans.

He could very well shine at Lyon and make a mark. Moreira may have wanted to do that at a bigger club like Chelsea, surrounded by players of better quality. The French side had an urgent requirement after they lost Bradley Barcola late in the window. PSG beat the competition for the winger and agreed a fee with Lyon very near to the transfer deadline.

Chelsea will hope Moreira has a tremendous season and returns a different, more mature player than before. The 19-year-old forward had no say in that decision to move so quickly, but he could get more opportunities at Lyon than he would have at the London side.