Andrey Santos has confirmed he rejected a significant summer approach from Saudi side Al Qadsiah after Chelsea opened talks over a \u20ac70 million offer. UOL revealed earlier this week that the bid, worth \u20ac70 million (\u00a360.7 million, $82 million), prompted Chelsea to consider an exit for the midfielder.<\/p>\n
Santos said he declined despite the opportunity to earn more than five times his current salary in the Middle East. \u201cThe offer did arrive, but I immediately declined because of my dream and main goal, which is the World Cup,\u201d Santos told Trivela . \u201cI know that being at Chelsea and in the Premier League gives me better chances than in Saudi Arabia. That was the main factor in my response to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2025\/26 season context has left Santos focused on forcing his way into Brazil\u2019s squad for next season\u2019s World Cup. He is aiming to move up Chelsea\u2019s midfield pecking order under boss Enzo Maresca, who also has Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez and Mois\u00e9s Caicedo among his options.<\/p>\n
Santos has featured as a substitute in each of Chelsea\u2019s three Premier League games to date, usually deployed slightly higher than the defensive role in which he impressed while at Strasbourg. He has been clear about where he prefers to operate on the pitch. \u201cI really enjoy playing as a defensive midfielder,\u201d Santos continued. \u201cI even think it\u2019s my main position, because I grew up as a defensive midfielder. When I moved up to Vasco, it was as a defensive midfielder. At Chelsea, I play a bit further forward, but I feel comfortable playing in both positions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bayern Munich had also been linked as a suitor during the window, but Santos\u2019s public stance is that remaining at Chelsea and competing in the Premier League offers the best pathway to his World Cup objective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Andrey Santos rejected a \u20ac70m Al Qadsiah bid to prioritise his World Cup ambitions at Chelsea. This.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2567,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,172],"tags":[944,934],"class_list":["post-2568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-epl","tag-andrey-santos","tag-enzo-maresca"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2568","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=2568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}