Official: Chelsea FCW sign left back Alejandra Bernabé

Emma Hayes isn’t done building the squad or planning for the future. Today Chelsea FCW announced the signing of 21-year-old left back Alejandra Bernabé from Atlético Madrid.

Bernabé has signed a three-year contract with Chelsea and will spend the 2023-24 season continuing her loan spell at Real Sociedad.

Bernabé is an ascending talent who signed for Atlético as a teenager and, after a couple loan spells, earned her first call-up to the Spain national team last year (caveat: that federation is a mess and had to fill the squad with new players after ‘The 15’ demanded change).

Still, Bernabé is certainly one to watch for the next generation of talent coming from Spain. If she continues her trajectory, she could find herself eating up minutes for the senior team in 2024-25. She’s a naturally left-footed player who loves to tackle and intercept, is hard to beat 1v1, and also loves taking players on the dribble. The downside to her game at the moment is that she can be a bit careless with the ball.

While Bernabé won’t be gracing the pitch for Chelsea this season, she’s still a signing who addresses what has historically been a real problem area for us. It’s great to see the Blues looking for long-term solutions in this regard, and we just might have plucked a gem in Bernabé.

Welcome to Chelsea (eventually)!