Chelsea look to recall wonderkid from disappointing loan at Real Betis — report

The Chelsea Academy and youth system are chock-full of amazing talent, perhaps none more promising than Belgian superkid Charly Musonda Jr, who joined Chelsea as a 15-year-old in the summer of 2012, alongside his two older brothers Tika and Lamisha. Father Charly Sr had insisted on a package deal for his three sons, which allowed Chelsea to steal a march on the likes of Barcelona and Manchester City.

While the older Musonda brothers have since moved on, Charly Jr, now 20, has continued to develop just about as well as we had expected. After starring for the Chelsea youth teams for a couple years, winning two FA Youth Cups, the U21 Premier Leauge, and the UEFA Youth League along the way, Charly hit the loan circuit in January, spending the second half of last season with Real Betis in Spain’s top division.

He impressed the green half of Seville enough that they extended his loan for this season, but a change of management in the summer (interim boss Juan Merino was replaced by former Chelsea great Gus Poyet) did not favor the Chelsea loanee. Combined with a couple ill-timed injuries, Musonda has been limited to just one start in eight total appearances in La Liga. His 275 minutes played rank near the bottom among Chelsea’s sizable Loan Army, and that just simply won’t do for one of, if not the brightest prospect in the system.

And so, unsurprisingly, Chelsea could be looking to cut the loan short in January and find a better solution.

As the report also reveals, Musonda is in fact back in London (again) for further tests on a knee injury. It’s unclear if it’s the same injury that kept him out earlier this season; either way, it needs to be taken care of.

Betis sporting director Miguel Torrecilla confirmed that Chelsea had recalled Musonda to conduct tests on the knee, but kept his options open beyond that. He also seemed to hint at the loan arrangement containing a proviso that Betis would have pay more (a penalty?) should Chelsea cut the loan short — though perhaps the injuries will be a mitigating factor in the lack of opportunities Musonda’s had at Betis this season.