Todd Boehly drops major hint over first Chelsea addition for Enzo Maresca in 2025/26

Todd Boehly has hinted Andrey Santos will be part of the first team squad at Chelsea next season.

football.london that Santos will be playing his football at Stamford Bridge in the 2025/26 campaign, however there has been conflicting reports from elsewhere since then. himself has said that no decision has been communicated with him over where he will be playing his football next term.

The 21-year-old midfielder has shone at the BlueCo-owned Strasbourg this season, where he has scored 11 goals and provided five assists across 34 appearances in all competitions. Santos recently came in second-place in the French club's Player of the Season vote, only to lose out to fellow Blues loanee , who is also under consideration by the west Londoners this summer.

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This summer will look a bit different for Chelsea with the club taking part in the revamped FIFA Club World Cup in the United States. The Blues will not be doing their usual pre-season tour but instead will be in competitive action, with the competition beginning in less than a month. Santos will be representing the west Londoners in the States, has now confirmed.

The Chelsea co-owner, speaking at the Qatar Economic Forum, said: "We're going to the Club World Cup, so right now we're laser focused on the Club World Cup. You know we have some players that are joining us for the Club World Cup that were not on the team.

"Andrey Santos is coming from Strasbourg and we're really excited about him and what we think he can add to the squad. The challenge that we really have is how many matches these guys are playing. The calendar is really tight and they put so much effort and energy. The injuries are continuing to go up and up and up, so I think we're going to have to revisit what the calendar looks like and how much football they can actually play.

"Obviously they are built to play football, they love playing football, so we're trying to find the balance as to know what is the right amount of football."

Chelsea have already confirmed the signing of Dario Essugo from Sporting CP, with the 20-year-old midfielder set to move to Stamford Bridge this summer. Essugo is very much expected to be part of the first team squad next term and add some much-needed depth to the midfield - an area that has lacked numbers this season.

has had another injury-ridden campaign and Maresca has not been able to call upon the Belgium international anywhere near as much as he would have liked. That means the likes of and have played more football than the Chelsea head coach would have ideally wanted. Adding Essugo and potentially Santos for the 25/26 campaign, though, makes Chelsea automatically stronger.