Manchester City have completed the signing of Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez from Chelsea, bringing the 25-year-old back together with his former Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca.<\/p>\n
The transfer closes a turbulent six-month stretch that included a club suspension, interest from several clubs, an ultimatum and repeated hostility from supporters at Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n
The dispute dates back to March, when Chelsea\u2019s vice-captain publicly discussed Real Madrid and made comments about his future that led to a two-match suspension. At the time, then-manager Liam Rosenior said, \u201cA line was crossed in terms of our culture and what we want to build,\u201d<\/p>\n
From there, the situation only grew more unsettled. Chelsea\u2019s failure to reach European competition added pressure, before Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s run with Argentina to the 2026 World Cup final kept attention on his next step.<\/p>\n
His wish to reunite with Maresca became clear, and Chelsea responded with a firm deadline for City: $162.1 million (\u00a3120 million) had to arrive by August 14 at 5 p.m. BST (12 p.m. ET, 9 a.m. PT), or the deal was off.<\/p>\n
No offer came by the deadline. A day later, Fern\u00e1ndez appeared off the bench in a friendly against Real Sociedad at Stamford Bridge and was greeted by whistles. He received the same reaction in Chelsea\u2019s opening Premier League match at Fulham.<\/p>\n
Chelsea later reopened talks with City, which kept Fern\u00e1ndez out of the squad for the Carabao Cup tie against Luton Town and the league match against Brighton and Hove Albion. Manager Xabi Alonso said he \u201cneeded\u201d players who are fully \u201cfocused.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fern\u00e1ndez had been left choosing between repairing a damaged relationship at Chelsea or starting again under a manager he knows well, while also stepping into Champions League football.<\/p>\n
The move also sets a notable financial marker. Fern\u00e1ndez becomes the only player ever to command two fees above $135 million (\u00a3100 million). He joined Chelsea from Benfica for $131 million (\u00a3106 million) in January 2023, shortly after winning the World Cup.<\/p>\n
For Chelsea, the sale is their biggest since Eden Hazard\u2019s move to Real Madrid in 2019, and it takes their summer player sales to $575 million (\u00a3425 million).<\/p>\n
Before leaving, Fern\u00e1ndez wrote: \u201cI want you to know that these have not been easy days for me. Writing this is not easy either. The truth is, I haven\u2019t been in a good place,\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThree years ago, Cobham and Stamford Bridge became home for me and my family. I grew attached to the people, to the shirt and to the badge of this incredible club.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fern\u00e1ndez leaves Chelsea for City after a long dispute, a record fee and a damaged Stamford Bridge exit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18942,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,1056],"tags":[1047,180,182],"class_list":["post-18943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-man-city","tag-champions-league","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}