Official: Olympique Lyonnais sign Diego Moreira on loan from Chelsea

Diego Moreira made his Chelsea debut on Wednesday, in the League Cup match against AFC Wimbledon, but he will not be staying with us this season, having joined Olympique Lyonnais on loan for the season — a challenging assignment for the 19-year-old indeed.

Moreira’s move takes up the seventh and final foreign loan slot allowed by FIFA’s regulations. (Charlie Webster’s loan to SC Heerenveen doesn’t count against that limit as he is club-trained and still under 21.)

Young Diego came over from Benfica at the start of the summer, and made a couple appearances in preseason before getting the start on Wednesday. He’s got talent, that much is clear, but seems very raw still. Hopefully he can get some regular playing time at OL, who are reportedly paying a loan fee of €2.4m to make this happen.

With Moreira leaving, it looks like fellow new arrival Deivid Washington will be staying with us until at least January, presumably mostly with the Development Squad (akin to Cesare Casadei last summer) — especially if we can stop leading the league in injuries.

In any case, good luck, Diego!