Chelsea are keeping a very close eye on Geovany Quenda’s rise at Sporting. A Bola now explain why the youngster has only just “exploded” into form for the Lisbon club.

The Portuguese outlet reports the 18-year-old, who will move to Chelsea in the summer, returned from last season drained. He’d been tired out, physically and mentally.

Chelsea’s work to sign him will have obviously been a part of that.

Across 2024/25, Quenda featured in an exhausting 60 matches for both Sporting and Portugal’s youth teams. He only finished his campaign on 21 June after the Under-21 European Championship. 

The long run of games, followed by just a short summer break, left him struggling to regain his rhythm.

According to A Bola, signs of fatigue were still evident during pre-season. That encouraged coach Rui Borges to manage the player carefully. 

Rather than rush him back into the starting XI, Borges kept him on the bench for the opening games, using him in shorter bursts while he rebuilt his form and confidence.

That patient approach paid off. When Quenda finally started on 13 September against Famalicão, he made an immediate impact by setting up Pedro Gonçalves’ equaliser with a...