Official: KAS Eupen sign Gaga Slonina on loan from Chelsea

I don’t know much about KAS Eupen — other than that Claude Makélélé was their manager for a hot second a few years ago — but I do know that their goalkeeping situation just got a massive upgrade with the signing of young Gabriel “Gaga” Slonina.

Gaga’s (practically) first (but technically second) Chelsea loan assignment was officially confirmed today, and the 19-year-old jetted out to Belgium, leaving behind a potentially fast-evolving goalkeeping situation with Kepa Arrizabalaga and Robert Sánchez (and Marcus Bettinelli). But that’s not really Gaga’s concern now, at least for the next season.

Eupen avoided relegation by a just singular point last year, and had the division’s third worst goals against record, conceding over two goals per game in the 34-game league season. So if nothing else, Gaga’s about to get a fair amount of practice — and presumably playtime, which might explain why he’s ended up at only this (low-ish) level of loan.

Slonina won’t be the only Chelsea connection at Eupen this season, with Cobham graduate Isaac Christie-Davies also plying his trade there currently. ICD left Chelsea in 2018, and joined Eupen as a free agent last summer after things didn’t work out for him at Barnsley.(He had briefly joined my hometown team on loan, even!)

Good luck to both!