Luis Campos insists he's not interested in becoming Chelsea's sporting director, boosting Christoph Freund's hopes of landing one of the biggest executive roles in English football.
Chelsea are on the hunt for a sporting director after appointing Graham Potter as their new manager earlier this month, succeeding Thomas Tuchel. The Blues have been without a sporting director since Marina Granovskaia left Stamford Bridge in June.
Chelsea chair Todd Boehly has acted as interim sporting director since Granovskaia's exit, spending more than £250million on players during the summer transfer window. Boehly has been accused of lacking a footballing strategy for the two-time European champions.
A consortium led by Boehly completed a takeover of Chelsea in May to end Roman Abramovich's 19-year ownership of the club. The Russian's era came to an end after he was sanctioned by the UK government for having ties to Vladimir Putin, something he denies.
Campos was reportedly Boehly's preferred choice for the sporting director role after building successful squads at Monaco and Lille. Thanks in part to Campos, those are the only two clubs to deny Paris Saint-Germain from winning the Ligue 1 title since 2012.
Yet Campos isn't interested in joining Chelsea. The Portuguese executive was recently hired by PSG as a football advisor - effectively becoming their sporting director - and has been tasked with building a squad capable of winning the Champions League.
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Although PSG have won eight of the last 10 Ligue 1 titles, they are yet to win their maiden European Cup. Campos is building a younger team based on each player's ability and promise, instead of their standing in the game. Christophe Galtier is the PSG boss.
"I have a three-year deal here at PSG, as I wanted, and I've joined this club because I'm convinced we can do something extraordinary," Campos told RMC. "I've the right energy to fight for PSG and do something great here."
Campos also confirmed Neymar, who was linked with a move to Chelsea in the summer, is part of PSG's plans. "Neymar is a very good player," added Campos. "He arrives on time all the time, he hasn't missed a training session, except one for a small injury. Neymar is involved in the team and club project."
Campos' comments are a boost for Freund, who refused to rule out leaving RB Salzburg when asked about the Chelsea role earlier this week. "You should never rule anything out in football and Chelsea are such a huge club," he told Sky Sports Austria.
"But I'm sports director in Salzburg and I really enjoy it. Chelsea is a huge club in transition. I can't say exactly what will happen in the next few weeks and months."
Freund added: "I've had exchanges with Chelsea from time to time. We spoke more often a month or two ago because they were interested in [striker Benjamin] Sesko. The new owners are interested in how we do it with young players, how we integrate them into the first team. But you do that again and again with other clubs – that's it."
