Rapid Vienna have elected to send Chelsea youngster Thierno Ballo back to Stamford Bridge, as they weren’t convinced he would play enough to develop as planned.
That’s according to the club’s Managing Director of Sport, Zoran Barisic, who has commented on the youngster’s deadline day return to Chelsea.
Ballo had been on loan with Rapid Vienna since the summer, signing a season-long loan deal with the Austrian side as he searched for regular playing time away from London.
He’s only managed eight appearances in the Austrian Bundesliga this season, though, managing just 38% of the available minutes and managing to be in the starting XI just 33% of the time.
That led to reports towards the end of January that he was being sent back to Chelsea early, and the two clubs had reached an agreement to end things.
According to their information, Ballo had spent ‘too little time in action’ to justify the deal continuing, and so the Austrian club’s agreement was ‘terminated early by mutual consent’. That’s been confirmed by Barisic, who has explained the decision.
“It is immensely important for Thierno Ballo to play as many minutes as possible at the highest possible level at this stage of his development,” he said.
“Not least due to the surprising return of Yusuf Demir and other good alternatives we have in our squad, this is rather unlikely in the next few months.
“Therefore, we agreed that it would be best for Ballo to return to London.”
