Enzo Fernandez’ rise has been so aggressive, so mind-bogglingly rapid, that the 22-year-old Argentine has not even had time to be crowned with a pithy Spanish nickname. There’s no “Chicharito”, no “El Nino”, no “La Pulga”. He is still just Enzo, or to those who don’t know him well, “that kid Chelsea spent £107m on after less than 30 games in European football”.
A year ago, Fernandez started a footballing season that never quite finished. River Plate, the club he first joined as a five-year-old in 2006, lost 1-0 to fellow Argentinian top-division side Union Santa Fe in the cup, and Fernandez has not really had a rest since.
In that period, Fernandez has played in three continents and has been shipped around for a combined transfer fee of well over £125m.
While Fernandez impressed in the 24 matches he managed for Benfica before Qatar 2022, it was his performances at the World Cup which inflated his price tag and expedited his exit from Portugal six months after he arrived.
Initially expected to be a peripheral figure, Fernandez started the tournament on the bench and finished it as Young Player of the Tournament. Argentina’s final group game against Poland was the first international game he had started, after five substitute appearances.
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In Fernandez, Todd Boehly and his magical team of gold-producing leprechauns have spent 107m on potential. To varying degrees they have done the same thing with Mykhailo Mudryk, Noni Madueke, Benoit Badiashile, Malo Gusto, Andrey Santos and David Datro Fofana just this month alone. The venture capitalists are applying their high-risk trade to football.
The issue with potential is that, by definition, it does not exist. It is boundlessly possible yet easily destroyed, by a toxic dressing room of inflated egos and unrealistic expectations, for example.
It is no secret that mega-money moves have an alarmingly low success rate, with Barcelona’s signing of Philippe Coutinho and Chelsea’s own move for Romelu Lukaku two strikingly dreadful acquisitions. There are various theories regarding correlation between the psychological impact of a price tag and success, but Kylian Mbappe and Cristiano Ronaldo have both demonstrated that at a certain level of ability, money is no object.
Whether Fernandez can ply his trade within similar echelons to Mbappe and Ronaldo will remain to be seen, but the attraction to the Argentine’s potential is understandable. Throughout their eight-year contracts, Enzo and Mudryk will either become immovable monuments to Boehly’s brilliant bravery or spendthrift stupidity.
As a player, Fernandez is a rare midfielder with no distinct weakness to his game, but his passing and tackling are obvious strengths. As good a short passer as he is long, Fernandez has made significantly more passes than any other player in the Portuguese top flight this season (1431). He has converted that into four goals and seven assists across 29 Benfica appearances, including assists against PSG and Juventus in the club’s unbeaten Champions League group stage campaign.
He is viewed as a slightly rash tackler, but his ability to read and break up play is excellent, and his tackle technique can be easily sharpened at Cobham. Compared to greats of the game like Luka Modric or Juan Sebastian Veron, Fernandez currently appears as comfortable anywhere in central midfield, having played as a defensive No 6, a shuttling No 8 and even, on occasion, an attacking No 10.
This versatility will be crucial to a Chelsea side long on players but short on identity. Graham Potter has been working with a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 formation of late. Fernandez will fit into either perfectly, having lined up in a double pivot for Roger Schmidt’s Benfica and a three-man midfield at the World Cup.
Fernandez joins a Blues engine room which has just lost Jorginho, can no longer rely on N’Golo Kante’s legs to stay in one piece, and cannot quite decide where Mason Mount or Conor Gallagher fit.
Stability and creativity will be the assets Potter most hopes Fernandez will supply. The young Argentine is an excellent progressive, line-breaking passer and this is something Chelsea desperately need. Creativity from open play has been the side’s biggest weakness, with there often being no clear creative outlet on the pitch when Reece James is out injured. This should help to improve the form of Chelsea’s ailing attack, which has managed just three goals in six matches in 2023.
Most expensive football transfers ever
- 1) Neymar – £198m (Barcelona to PSG)
- 2) Kylian Mbappe – £163m (Monaco to PSG)
- 3) Philippe Coutinho – £128m (Liverpool to Barcelona)
- 4) Joao Felix – £113m (Benfica to Atletico Madrid)
- 5) Enzo Fernandez – £107m (Benfica to Chelsea)
Given his seismic price tag, it can also be assumed that Fernandez will nail down one of the two central midfield spots in this side.
This will likely give Mason Mount license to return to his preferred central attacking midfield spot, or at any rate more freedom to maraud forward without as much defensive responsibility. If Chelsea continue with a 4-3-3, then Fernandez is the best candidate in this squad to replace Jorginho in the central defensive midfield spot, although this may limit his potential creative output.
Everything about Fernandez’ career so far has been fast-tracked, belying expectation to reach previously unimaginable heights. Graham Potter will desperately hope the same applies to his Stamford Bridge assimilation.
It won’t be long until Fernandez gets his own iconic epithet. You occasionally hear “El metronomo” (the metronome), or maybe even “Senor dinero” (Mr Money), but I’d like to put forward “La abeja” (the bee).
As the opening lines of the 2007 DreamWorks classic “Bee Movie” tells us, “According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground.
“The bee, of course, flies anyway, because bees don’t care what humans think is impossible.”
Despite all logic suggesting otherwise, Enzo continues to fly skywards. He doesn’t care what you think is impossible.
Chelsea’s ‘credit card’ spending explained
By Sam Cunningham, i‘s chief football correspondent – you can read his full analysis here
Purists would like to think of Financial Fair Play as a set of rigid rules creating a system that is unbreakable. In reality, it is more akin to a Swiss cheese, where smart accounts are able to flex their creative muscles to find clever loopholes to keep spending. The bigger the hole, the better.
“When the original FFP rules came out I came up with 10 schemes to get around it easily,” Maguire, a senior teacher in accountancy at the University of Liverpool, adds. “If I can do it and I’m just a teacher, imagine what the guys at Deloitte and PwC can do.”
Todd Boehly has steamed into Chelsea and pushed FFP spending to such limits that Uefa has been forced to close a loophole the American billionaire and his team of calculator warriors have seized upon.
“Amortisation” is a term football fans, particularly in west London, have had to familiarise themselves with in recent months. It essentially means they sign Mykhaylo Mudryk for £88m, but securing him to an eight-and-a-half-year contract means only £10.35m shows up on their books each year when it is checked by FFP inspectors.
“Chelsea’s strategy is intriguing,” Maguire says. “It’s high risk, but potentially high reward, especially if Mudryk turns out to be fantastic. In normal circumstance, a player would sign a contract for two to three years. If they do well, Real Madrid might come in to buy them towards the end, or Chelsea give them another contract on far more generous terms.
“The downside is, if he’s another [Romelu] Lukaku, or Winston Bogarde, they’re stuck with him. It’s an interesting strategy. You’ve got to have the money to do it in the first place.”
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