Chelsea defender Cristian Cuevas has joined FC Twente on a season-long loan.
(Or so it seems, because Chelsea seem to have classed it as a permanent transfer, while Twente explicitly talk about it being a loan! Let’s go with loan for now, however)
DONE DEAL: Welkom bij de club Cristian Cuevas! Hij speelt dit seizoen op huurbasis voor #FCTwente ➡️ https://t.co/saE98um1K5 pic.twitter.com/PqVQb0ZWiM
— FC Twente (@fctwente) August 31, 2017
Cuevas expressed his joy at being able to join the Eredivisie side, and is looking forward to playing in front of their fans.
"I am very happy with this step. In Chile, we know FC Twente of Felipe Gutierrez. FC Twente is a big club and I see this as a beautiful challenge. I'm a left back who plays a lot of passion and gives everything to the team, like more Chilenen. Whether I like the stadium? Sure! I've played with FC Eindhoven once, but then there was little publicity. I can not wait to play here for a full stadium.”
- Cristian Cuevas; source: FC Twente
A trialist towards the end of 2012, Cuevas signed permanently from Chilean club O’Higgins in the summer of 2013 for a sum in the region of £2 million and soon after, joined Vitesse Arnhem on loan. He was with Vitesse for six months and mostly played for their reserve side, before joining second division team FC Eindhoven for the latter half of the season. Cuevas saw some game-time at FC Eindhoven but spent the following season with barely any minutes to his name, at Universidad Chile.
His young career then gained a new lease of life when he was loaned to Sint-Truiden in the Belgian Jupiler League. He played regularly for the perpetual relegation-battlers, making 50 appearances during his two seasons with them. He even made a rare couple of appearances in an actual Chelsea shirt during pre-season games, one of them coming in a behind-closed-doors friendly versus Atus Ferlach in 2016 and the other being a late cameo against Inter Milan in Singapore.
Good luck!