Chelsea make huge profit from star who never played for them thanks to Cristiano Ronaldo's team

Chelsea made a £6m profit on Angelo Gabriel this summer, despite the winger never making a single competitive appearance for the Blues. The 19-year-old star was bought by the Premier League side for £13m from Brazilian club Santos in July last year, and he was subsequently loaned to Strasbourg in France for the 2023/24 season.

The French club were bought by Chelsea's owners in 2023, and Angelo went on to make 24 appearances in all competitions for the club – without scoring a single goal. The Brazilian winger has now secured a move to Saudi Pro League club Al Nassr for a fee worth around £19m, according to TransferMarkt.

Angelo will join Cristiano Ronaldo and Sadio Mane in Saudi Arabia this season with his move from Chelsea – with the London club making a hefty £6million profit on the player who has never been handed a Premier League debut.

Chelsea were another busy club in the summer transfer window, with several incoming and outgoing players at Stamford Bridge. The Blues sold the following players for a combined profit of £192m: Ian Maatsen, Conor Gallager, Lewis Hall, Romelu Lukaku, Omari Hutchinson, Angelo Gabriel and Diego Moreira.

Enzo Maresca then added Pedro Neto, Joao Felix, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Filip Jorgensen, Mike Penders, Aaron Anselmino, Renato Veiga, Caleb Wiley and Marc Guiu for a combined price of £201m.

The London club have also loaned out several players as Maresca looks to reduce his already bloated squad. Raheem Sterling has joined Arsenal for the season, Trevoh Chalobah has been loaned to Crystal Palace and goalkeeper Kepa has joined Bournemouth for the new campaign.

Despite all the big-ticket transfers over the summer, Chelsea have only won one Premier League game so far this season – a defeat to Manchester City and most recently a draw at home to Crystal Palace. While this mediocre start to the season may be starting to worry some fans, Maresca is confident he has everything under control – and that not winning every game is “normal”.

After the Palace game, the 44-year-old said: “We totally deserved to win the game given the number of chances we had. Overall, it was a good performance. The direction is right.”

“One thing that has to be clear is that Chelsea won the Champions League three years ago, but now they are not that kind of Chelsea anymore, so sometimes if you don't win it's normal.”