Chelsea center back Malang Sarr won’t be going to the Olympics after all

Chelsea loanee Malang Sarr was called up to the France squad to the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo, but as it turns out, several clubs had not actually given permission to their players for going, including Chelsea. Following that embarrassment, France announced a revised squad last weekend, sans Sarr and several others.

France’s C-Team will likely still compete for top honors at the Games (provided they go ahead amid Tokyo’s latest COVID-19 surge and associated “quasi-lockdown”), but they will have to do so without the 22-year-old defender who spent last season on loan at Porto and Porto B, with less than impressive results.

It’s not known exactly what Chelsea’s reasoning was for not letting Sarr go to Japan. It’s unlikely that we’d have to him ear-marked for a first-team role, though Thomas Tuchel might still want to take a look at him during the early part of preseason. Perhaps we simply want to ensure that he has all the time needed to find a good loan move for next season.