Chelsea recently added Albania to the long list of countries who have produced players in Blue. Here are five countries still awaiting their first.
Armando Broja lays a double claim to fame: he was Chelsea’s last substitute before the coronavirus tackled society like N’Golo Kante against a Tottenham midfield, and he was the first Albanian national to play for the club. That got us thinking in all the spare time we now have: What other countries are still waiting for their Chelsea debut?
1. Mexico
LigaMX is currently the top football league still playing, which will give Chelsea’s scouts something to do during the indefinite suspension. The Blues have never had a player from Mexico. The closest they have come were those transfer rumours linking Hirving “Chucky” Lozano to the club last summer, before Lozano moved from PSV to Napoli.
2. Iran
Ali Jahanbakhsh scored one of the Premier League’s goals of the season to force the Blues into a draw at the AMEX Stadium on New Years’ Day. Jahanbakhsh’s overhead goal was only his second of the season after playing only one of Brighton’s first 19 games in 2019/20. The nature, timing and scorer were all signs that whatever new manager bounce and karmic fortune Chelsea had to start the season would not follow them into 2020.
If Jahanbakhsh were to come to Chelsea, he would be the first Iranian to wear Blue. That move is unlikely to happen for a lot of reasons, and this streak is one that will probably continue for quite some time.
An Iranian player would probably run into some troubles at home if he played for Roman Abramovich. So until geopolitics do their thing, Iran will probably still be on this list when we update it some years down the road when we are starved for content.
3. Turkey
Chelsea have sold or loaned several players to Turkey, and Didier Drogba came from Galatasaray when he returned to Chelsea for the 2014/15 season. But the Blues have yet to play a Turkish player.
The Blues did have one Turkish player on the books, though. Muzzy Izzet came to Chelsea’s academy from Senrab FC, the Sunday League team that was the origin for John Terry among an oddly number of other great footballers. The Blues sold Izzet to Leicester, where he played for eight years before finishing his career at Birmingham City.
Izzet played more Premier League games (248) and scored more goals (34) than any other Turkish player. Eight of those games and four of those goals were against his boyhood club.
4. India
According to Google Analytics, there is a very strong chance you’re from India. If so, we commend your commitment to a team that has never signed one of your countrymen (being an American, I had the legacy of Roy Wegerle, the hope of Kyle Scott and the cautionary tale of Matt Miazga to hold me over until Christian Pulisic arrived).
When Chelsea do sign an Indian player, it could be truly historic, as he could be the first in the Premier League.
5. Chile
Chelsea had a few summers linked with Alexis Sanchez, who was viewed alternately as a partner for Eden Hazard, a replacement for Willian or Pedro, someone to pick up the slack post-Eden Hazard, a perfect winger for Antonio Conte, someone who could score goals and was hungry to actually win something in England other than the FA Cup at Arsenal… all good reasons, none good enough for the move to happen.
At least one of those happened: Sanchez is now at Inter Milan with Romelu Lukaku and Victor Moses, a player Conte wanted at Chelsea and a player Conte made into a star at Chelsea.
Who knows if the Blues would have had peak Sanchez or the Manchester United version of him, but either way they would have had their first Chilean.
Cristian Cuevas spent four years on the absolute lowest tier of the loan army. That’s the tier that gets loaned outside of Europe.
Things started well for Cuevas in the loan army, with his first posting to Vitesse back when it was “Chelsea B.” That’s as good as it would get: arriving. He did not make any senior appearances for Vitesse, so his next loan was to FC Eindhoven. Not PSV Einhoven. FC Eindhoven, in the Netherlands’ second tier.
A few loans later and the Blues let him leave for free to Huachipato in his home country, who then loaned him back to Europe to the Eredivisie and the Austrian Bundesliga! Perhaps things improved once he traded one loan system for another.
Since Chelsea bought Cuevas from Chile’s O’Higgins in 2013, he has only made two appearances for his actual club. All the rest have been on loans.