Flamengo ‘begin talks’ with Chelsea over Kenedy loan — report

Chelsea winger Kenedy is enjoying his summer holidays back in his home country of Brazil, while also working hard to keep himself fit for the upcoming season.

But unlike many loanees and fringe players, he’s probably not going to be part of the Chelsea squad that begins preseason training next week, with the 25-year-old likely to stay in Brazil for a fair bit longer. According to Globo Esporte, current Brazilian Serie A champions Flamengo have opened talks with Chelsea to arrange a season-long loan move with a buy-option.

Once a player of Flamengo’s bitter rivals, Fluminense, Kenedy was invited to train at the club’s facilities during this off-season while recovering from an ankle injury. Flamengo were hoping to leverage that into Kenedy joining their team for good, although the possibility of beating European clubs to this objective seemed quite distant at the time.

But now they are apparently more confident, having enlisted the help of Giuliano Bertolucci, the agent usually used by Chelsea for all our Brazilian deals, and having also convinced Kenedy that this was a good idea indeed. The only hurdle now would be if a European team were to show real interest with a permanent transfer offer as Flamengo would not be able to compete with that.

But if that does not happen, Kenedy will likely end up playing for the Brasileirão champions later this year.