Chelsea are in talks with both RB Salzburg executive Christoph Freund and Paris Saint-Germain advisor Luis Campos, as they bid to fill their vacant sporting director role.
Discussions with Freund, who is credited with discovering Erling Haaland, Sadio Mane and Naby Keita, come ahead of tonight’s Champions League match against the Austrian champions at Stamford Bridge.
There have also been recent talks with Campos, who is able to immediately accept any role at Chelsea due to the casual nature of his job with PSG.
It is understood Chelsea could even look to secure both Freund and Campos together, as they look to transform how the club operates behind the scenes.
Portuguese director Campos has been an expert in identifying talent after breaking through as a scout for Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid.
Campos is credited with building the Monaco team that made it to the Champions League semi-finals after unearthing Kylian Mbappe, Anthony Martial, Fabinho and Bernardo Silva during his time in the principality.
The duo are now thought to be frontrunners for the vacant Blues role, with Todd Boehly also having spoken to ex-Liverpool director Michael Edwards, Monaco’s Paul Mitchell and Brentford technical director Lee Dykes.
Boehly wants someone in place before the World Cup, which begins in November. It would relieve interim sporting director Boehly of his day-to-day duties running the football operation alongside Clearlake Capital investor Behdad Eghbali. They have taken a hands-on approach and spent a world record £270million over the summer.
They will remain aggressive in the market but move more strategically, with a plan to buy clubs across Europe and scrap the ‘loan army’ that was criticised under Roman Abramovich.
Speaking at the SALT Conference in New York, Boehly spoke about copying Manchester City and Red Bull’s multi-club model.
“We’ve talked about having a multi-club model,” Boehly said. “There are different countries where there are advantages to having a club. Red Bull have Salzburg and Leipzig in the Champions League.
“I want to continue building out the footprint. There are different countries where there are advantages to having a club.
“We know people and human capital and 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.
“The challenge that Chelsea has, when you have 18, 19, 20-year-old superstars, you can loan them out to clubs, but you put their development in someone else’s hands.
“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. The way to do that is through another club in a competitive league in Europe.”
In that same industry conference, Boehly also floated the idea of a Premier League All-Star match.
