Argentina midfielder has been Chelsea’s best player at the Club World Cup, continuing a trend of recent months
E
nzo Fernández is no stranger to the big stage. The midfielder took his chance when he broke through at the 2022 World Cup, earning a starting role for Argentina after coming off the bench to score a vital goal against Mexico in the group stage.
Fernández looked as if he had been in the team for years by the time Argentina beat France in the final. He was named young player of the tournament and inevitably became a target for several big clubs. It was not long before word was filtering out of Portugal that Chelsea and Liverpool were looking at signing the former River Plate midfielder in the January 2023 transfer window.
Chelsea’s fear was that Arsenal and Manchester City were planning to move for Fernández in the summer. Unwilling to miss out on a key target, the decision was made to pay above the going rate. Expectations rocketed when Fernández joined for £106.7m, breaking the British transfer record. He walked into a troubled club. Seasoned players wanted out, Graham Potter was close to being sacked and there was a lot of pressure on Fernández because of his fee, even though he had moved to a new league halfway through season and had made only 25 starts for Benfica.
