Todd Boehly will be one step closer to completing the perfect Chelsea team by appointing Christoph Freund as the club's new sporting director. The RB Salzburg transfer chief has been heavily linked with a move to Stamford Bridge as the American billionaire looks to bolster the Blues' boardroom staff.
According to the Evening Standard, the west Londoners are in talks with Freund for the vacant sporting director role. Chelsea are still yet to have filled the position since Michael Emenalo parted ways with the club in 2017; Marina Granovskaia, who left her post as a director this summer, managed negotiations oppose to leading talent identification.
The reports states that the RB Salzburg executive, who 'discovered Erling Haaland', would oversee a potential network of clubs, with Boehly looking to copy the Red Bull and City Group model. Speaking at the SALT Conference in New York on Tuesday, the LA Dodgers co-owner discussed his vision for the Blues.
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We’ve talked about having a multi-club model," Boehly said. "I think there’s different countries where there’s advantages to having a club. Red Bull have Salzburg and Leipzig in the Champions League. I want to continue building out the footprint. I think there’s different countries where there’s advantages to having a club.
"We know people and human capital. We understand game plans and strategies. We’re not expecting to be the football experts to find the best talent, we are going to put those people in place - our goal is to make sure we can show pathways for our young superstars to get onto the Chelsea pitch while getting them real game time."
Freund has been integral to the Red Bull model by identifying football's next biggest stars, igniting the careers of Haaland, Dayot Upamecano and Karim Adeyemi. In the last two years, the trio have completed moves to Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund respectively.
The next star set to make the step into the limelight is Salzburg striker Benjamin Sesko. The 19-year-old striker, who featured for the Austrian giants against Chelsea in the Champions League, was heavily linked with a move to Manchester United this summer.
Freund signed the Slovenian when the starlet was 16-years-old. According to The Mirror, the Red Devils were offered his services too at the time, though his £2.5million price tag was deemed too expensive.
Now, Sesko, who is under contract with the Red Bull outfit until 2026, is being valued at around £50million. With a potential move on the cards one day, appointing Freund as sporting director could hand Chelsea a huge advantage in the transfer race.
And, with the talent identification guru potentially on the Blues' side, maybe the west Londoners would get a foot in the door for the signing of Haaland, whose release clause at the Etihad Stadium is set to be activated in 2024 and then 2025.
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