Óscar Perea’s agent Matías Bunge has told El VBar Caracol that he held talks with Chelsea before his client completed a move from Atlético Nacional to RC Strasbourg on July 2nd.
The 18-year-old spent two years at Atlético Nacional’s academy before he was promoted to their first team in 2022, where he managed eight goals and five assists from 54 games.
The player’s representative initially had discussions with Chelsea for the winger, but they didn’t get this deal over the line.
Chelsea are owned by BlueCo, who also own the French club. While this could have helped Strasbourg make progress in this operation, Caracol insists that the Premier League side made no attempt to sign the youngster.
“Whoever buys him and does the operation… the papers are signed with Racing, even though he is the same owner as Chelsea. At first, we spoke with the people from Chelsea, but the details were agreed with the people from Racing [Strasbourg],” he said.
The representative has also revealed that Strasbourg have followed the winger for a long time before making advances in securing his services.
“The people from Strasbourg were in Medellín watching Óscar live, they had already followed him since the last tournament and at the end of the day, at the end of the season, they decided to advance for him and presented an offer. The negotiation with Nacional ended up being good for all parties,” Bunge explained.
The South American has signed a contract until 2029 at Strasbourg, but the agent claims their aim is to make profit from his client’s sale to another European club. If Chelsea were to be still keen on Perea in the future, they would have an easy route to sign him.
“Strasbourg have a young squad and they are trying to make and keep, to have young players that they can then sell to other European teams,” he added.
“They want to finish developing Óscar and from there, the growth he can have, to see how far he can go. They are going to bet a lot on him and we hope that he can take advantage of the opportunities.”
