When Chelsea signed Matej Delač aged 17 in 2010 after some impressive displays in Croatia, many thought the club had the goalkeeper position sorted for a decade or so to come.
Unfortunately for the player and hopeful fans, it wasn’t to be, and it looks like his time at Chelsea might be coming to an end in the coming couple of seasons.
Scouted personally by Chelsea’s goalkeeping coach Christophe Lollichon, the 24-year-old is currently on loan, his ninth in six years, in Belgium at Royal Excel Mouscron,
Speaking to Sport/Foot magazine, the man behind the Petr Cech success story revealed how he came across the Croatian U21 international.
He said: “I’d heard of a young 16-year-old goalkeeper in Croatia. So many good things were said of him that I did the return trip for a mere friendly to make sure I was the first on the scene.
Signing a year later, the player never really managed to breakthrough at Chelsea, perhaps due to the big move coming too soon.
To put it in perspective, Thibaut Courtois, Chelsea’s current starter, was still third choice at Genk in Belgium.
Lollichon explains he might have jumped the gun a bit: “Looking back, I have to recognise that I might not have taken everything into account, starting with the overall level of the Croatian league.
“However, I don’t consider his transfer to Chelsea as a failure, mostly due to meeting an exceptional person.”
But his lack of game time still didn’t seem to put Chelsea off, who have given him two contract extensions since 2010, with the latest keeping him at the club until 2018.
Why? Hard work.
Lollichon continued: “Ancelotti, Villas-Boas, Benitez, Di Matteo, Mourinho or Conte all had a mitigated first impression of him, but gradually, with each training session, he systematically managed to convert them.”
Still, his time is running out, and the likelihood of the Blues giving Delač a third contract is slim to none, as the goalkeeping coach revealed.
He said: “I’m going to be honest, I don’t think Matej has a future at Chelsea. I think he’s a few centimetres short to impose himself here, but he has two years left on his contract, and we hope to find him a club that will suit him best to continue his career.”
Best of luck, Matej.
