Former Chelsea striker Daishawn Redan has revealed how he turned down efforts from Manchester United and West Ham United to move to Stamford Bridge as a youngster.
Redan joined the Blues from Ajax’s U17s side back in 2017 on a free transfer as part of their continual efforts to snap up talent from across the world.
His time at the club didn’t exactly go to plan, though, with a series of impressive performances and good numbers for Chelsea’s various youth teams failing to impress the club.
He never made a first-team appearance for them, despite doing everything he could, with the striker revealing this week he once threw up on the pitch due to the effort he was putting in.
His time at Chelsea ended in 2019 when he joined Hertha for £2.43m, with him since working on getting his career on track during loan spells with Groningen and now PEC Zwolle.
It seems things could have been very different, though, with Manchester United and West Ham both vying for his signature earlier when Chelsea came calling.
“Ajax wanted to give me a contract, but there were other clubs interested in me: Manchester United, Leipzig, West Ham United,” he told Funx.
“With all those clubs, I came along, but I made my choice after I saw the training at Chelsea. I thought: here, I can really develop.
“I did get pulled at a young age. I was asked every week (by Ajax) at training: When are you going to sign? It’s hard to answer that as a young boy.
“You can’t say you’re leaving; you just can’t answer. After a while, I just said: I’m done and don’t want to go to the club anymore.
“I do regret that because it’s nice if you keep training. But it doesn’t feel nice to hear that every time”.
We’ll now never know if choosing Manchester United and West Ham would have given him a different career path, but it’s clearly something he isn’t looking back on, moving on with his life in Germany and Holland.
