Official: Baba Rahman joins Reading on loan from Chelsea

Chelsea loan warrior Baba Rahman has been handed his next mission, and he’s chosen to accept it as well.

As confirmed today, the 27-year-old left back has joined Reading FC on loan for the season. As far as it’s been reported, there is no buy-option attached to the deal. As is customary, he did extend his Chelsea contract, though we extended it by two years for some reason so that it now expires only in 2024 as opposed to next summer.

Baba will be expected to help replace Omar Richards, who joined Bayern Munich (!) on a free transfer earlier this summer. Reading finished just outside the playoff spots in the Championship last season, but have gotten off to a rather poor start this season, losing three of their first four in the league, and also getting eliminated from the League Cup at the first hurdle.

This is Baba’s sixth different loan to a fifth different team since 2016. Safe to say, he’s not quite lived up to the promise he had once shown, though a series of knee injuries certainly had something to do with that as well. He seems okay these days (as shown by a good spell at PAOK in the second half of last season), so hopefully his time with the Royals goes well.

Good luck, Baba, and please say hi to Jon Swift for us, too!