Chelsea tried to sign World Cup finalist who admits he came ‘very close’ to joining – but believes he was right not to

For a long period of time, Chelsea have had some of the best young players in Europe playing for their club, as highlighted by their seven FA Youth Cup wins between 2010 and 2018.

Croatian midfielder Ivan Rakitic could have been another player to have made their final steps towards becoming a professional footballer at Chelsea, admitting to FourFourTwo that he nearly signed for the Blues as a youngster.

Ultimately he opted not to, instead preferring to continue his development at Basel before eventually moving to Schalke as a 19-year-old. When asked about how close he came to agreeing a deal, the 2018 World Cup finalist describes the situation.

“Very close,” Rakitic exclusively tells FFT. “I was about 15 or 16 when I started to play for Switzerland in the junior age groups. We had really good games, then there was a time when Chelsea began to sign between 30 and 50 young players from everywhere, and there was this possibility to go there.