Saúl Ñíguez looking forward to playing for Tuchel, winning with Chelsea

The Chelsea formula for attracting some of the best talent in the transfer market is pretty simple. Offer some of the industry’s best wages, alongside the opportunity to work with some of the industry’s best coaches and players, all in service to winning as many trophies as humanly possible. Challenge, opportunity, reward. It’s not groundbreaking and it’s not unique, but it’s generally very effective (the key is to keep the winning cycle going, otherwise the formula gets more complicated).

In any case, the latest to join thanks to all that is midfielder Saúl Ñíguez, who may be coming off of a less than stellar season at Spanish champions Atlético Madrid, but who has been a top midfielder in one of the world’s best teams and leagues for many years already before then. And while there is a chance that he won’t ever get back to those heights, it’s probably far too soon to write him off just yet.

Saúl, who’s still just 26, is certainly looking forward to the new opportunities presented by this new challenge in his career.

“I am so happy to be here. It was a great opportunity for myself and for my career. I had to take the chance to be here at Chelsea so I’m very happy and very excited. I’m really looking forward to training and, most importantly, to start working with my coach.”

“I’ve spent 15 years at Atletico Madrid, it’s my home. And then, when the opportunity to join Chelsea came up, I couldn’t turn it down.”

Born in 1994, Saúl joined the youth setup at Real Madrid in 2006 before switching to Atlético a couple years later. By then, Chelsea were already a top team in England and in Europe. Saúl’s certainly of the generation of players and fans who have always lived with Chelsea being one of the ultimate powers of global football — and thus a first-choice for many when it comes to Premier League dreams. (And it helps that Kepa’s a good friend of his from the national team.)

“The last day of the transfer window was crazy but in the end I could come here, as we all were hoping, so I have to seize this chance. Since I was a child, I always had two goals — to make history at Atletico Madrid and to play in the Premier League, not only because of the league itself but also for its culture and the language.”

-Saúl Ñíguez; source: Chelsea FC

Having made history at Atlético, it’s time to make history in the Premier League.

You’re at the right place for that, Saúl!

Photo by Harriet Lander - Chelsea FC/Chelsea FC via Getty Images