Attacker who Manchester United released says he was actually so close to signing for Chelsea

Add as preferred source on Google

Chelsea have had their fair share of transfer near misses over the years.

Indeed, Sergio Aguero nearly signed for Chelsea before joining Manchester City, while Declan Rice was a long-term target before joining Arsenal.

Those are more high-profile examples, but now, another player has claimed that he almost signed for Chelsea at one point.

Indeed, speaking on the More than a Match Podcast, Deji Sotona has shared the story of how he nearly signed for Chelsea a few years ago.

Sotona came through the Manchester United academy before being released and joining Nice, and from France, he almost found his way to Chelsea before a deal collapsed.

Deji Sotona almost signed for Chelsea

Sotona shared the story of how he almost joined Chelsea.

The attacker spoke about his time on trial at Chelsea, and he says the Blues did want to sign him at one point.

However, a deal fell through as Nice refused to let him go.

“I went from Nice to be fair I went from Nice to Chelsea on trial okay So this was a this is a mad story. I’ll be honest. It’s a mad thing,” Sotona said.

“So these times at Nice obviously I want to get out. I just want to go back to England and I um just wanted to go back to England and um so this they they agreed with my agent that listen he’s not played for a season because obviously that season I’d not played and I wanted to try play reserves, that season was covid. Their league was cancelled.

“I went to Chelsea on trial. I did really well on trial and stuff, but um I felt my hammy in training in it. Felt my hammy in training and fair play to Chelsea. They said, “Listen, stay here. It doesn’t look that serious. Stay here for a few weeks. We’ll we’ll sort it out and stuff.”

“Then we played against Brentford B. Alright. So you see Chelsea because they had so many players. They have a changing room full of loan players.

“I played against Brentford B with the loan players like Ross Barkley and that big big players like good game.

“I was playing 10 that game bro. So we playing with two tens in it. Barkley was on the right. I was on the left.

I can never forget that game. That game was probably one of the best games I ever played in bro. Like he was giving it to me.

“What a player he is by the way. Yeah, he that game was really good and obviously I done well there really well on that game. After that game said listen spoke to my agent that we want to sign you. Yeah, we we want to sign you. We’ll pay that price. The price it was went back to Nice and said listen we’re going to pay that price.

“And they said, “No, we don’t we’re not going agree on that price.” They wanted more like what? So they said what do you want more?

“No, bring him back. I said I said, “Bro, what’s going on here?” Yeah, that’s not I want my player back. Bring him bring him back. They booked me a flight for the next day back.”

What happened to Deji Sotona?

Sotona missed out on a move to Chelsea, but, fortunately, the Blues haven’t necessarily lived to regret this one.

Indeed, Sotona hasn’t exactly lived up to his potential after leaving Manchester United, due to a string of bad injuries.

The attacker ended up joining Burnley where he wouldn’t break into the first-team, while moves to Doncaster Rovers and Eastleigh would follow.

Sotona is now a free agent at the age of 22 after leaving Eastleigh, and, sadly, he’s a long way away from a club like Chelsea at this point.

Sotona had tons of potential a few years ago, but, sadly, injuries have left him a long way away from where he could have been.