Chelsea will demand a club-record £120million if wantaway Enzo Fernandez insists on being sold this summer.
Real Madrid are one of the only contenders in world football who could afford to prise the Argentinian away from Stamford Bridge – with Manchester City, soon to be managed by Fernandez’s former head coach Enzo Maresca, prioritising a move for Nottingham Forest’s Elliot Anderson instead.
Fernandez is believed to be interested in exiting Chelsea after they failed to qualify for European football next season. While Blues sources say the World Cup winner is currently a part of their plans for their next campaign under Xabi Alonso – and that they would be happy to keep their 25-year-old vice-captain – they will not allow him to leave on the cheap if he wants a summer sale.
Speculation has long surrounded Fernandez’s future ever since his agent, Javier Pastore, publicly admitted they would explore their options this summer if no new contract was forthcoming from Chelsea. Talks have been held, but unlike with Reece James and Moises Caicedo, no agreement over fresh terms has been found. Fernandez has also openly flirted with Madrid over the previous season, with his comments seeing him handed an internal two-game ban by his own club after the last international break.
A package worth £120m would make him the third-largest sale in English football history, after Philippe Coutinho (£142m, from Liverpool to Barcelona) and Aleksandar Isak (£125m, from Newcastle to Liverpool).
Chelsea have slapped a £120m price tag on Enzo Fernandez ahead of the transfer window
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Chelsea insiders have scoffed at £70m valuations appearing abroad.
The Blues spent a then-British record £106.8m when they signed Fernandez from Benfica in 2023. He has been used in midfield and as a No 10, as well as off the left-hand side occasionally.
Fernandez was seen waving towards the away fans after their 2-1 loss away at Sunderland on the season’s final day which left them with a 10th-placed finish in the Premier League. As a result of that defeat in which he wore the captain’s armband, Chelsea will not be competing in Europe under Alonso next term.
Fernandez has won the Club World Cup and Conference League with Chelsea, but he has courted controversy at times. After winning the Copa America with Argentina in 2024, he was widely criticised for singing a racist song afterwards, though his boss at the time, Maresca, installed him as captain barely a month later when their Premier League campaign began.
His interview during the last international break increased the noise linking him with Real, as then-head coach Liam Rosenior punished him with a two-match suspension. Fernandez’s agent, Pastore, expressed his disappointment with that decision.
