Official: Southampton sign Valentino Livramento from Chelsea

Valentino Livramento finished last season on a highest of high notes, earning Academy Player of the Year honors at Chelsea. Unfortunately, instead of seeing how far he can get at the club, he has decided to continue his career elsewhere amidst new scenery — and it was a decision apparently months in the making, too.

The 18-year-old has today joined Southampton, singing a five-year contract, rejecting interest from several other teams, including Brighton & Hove Albion. Chelsea had also offered an extension, but will receive a transfer fee in the region of £5m instead. We did reportedly agree a sell-on percentage, as well as a buy-back clause of £25m. (Or maybe £40m?)

Livramento joined Chelsea at the under-9 level, and made a name for himself with his dynamic attacking play up and down the right flank. He has been a regular for the U18s and U23s over the past couple of years, and had even made the first-team bench on a couple occasions last season. Alas, that was not enough to persuade him to stay.

He is the second Chelsea Academy player to choose Southampton this summer, following center back Dynel Simeu, who had been without a contract. Livramento is expected to go directly into the first-team, where he will compete with Yan Valery and Kyle Walker-Peters for minutes under the guidance of Ralph Hasenhüttl.

“I’ve been discussing with my dad about what we thought was best for my future. We felt like this was the right time for it to happen and for me to move on.”

“To have interest from a few top clubs, to choose Southampton was sort of a no-brainer. They are a solid Premier League club and the manager was quite a big factor as to why I wanted to come here and why I wanted to play for Southampton.”

-Tino Livramento; source: Southampton FC

Good luck, Tino!