Red Bull Salzburg’s Karim Adeyemi made his mark for Germany when he scored on his debut in Die Mannschaft’s 6-0 win over Armenia last weekend.
The 19-year-old has been drawing attention from top European clubs, but it was Chelsea who were among the first few sides to identify his potential a few years ago.
Adeyemi came up through the ranks of SpVgg Unterhaching, a fourth-tier German club, before making a switch to the Austrian side in 2018.
Prior to his move to Red Bull Salzburg, the Blues ‘wanted him’ and this has been revealed by the Bavarian club’s chairman, Manfred Schwabl.
The SpVgg Unterhaching chief appeared as a guest on Sport1’s program, Meine Bayern-Woche, where he admitted making a trip to London, along with the forward, to meet Chelsea officials.
“My contact with Karim’s family was very close. I then said that it would be a great story if we could look at it together on site. Then his dad, my daughter, Karim and I flew over and we went to see it at Chelsea.”
Schwabl explained why Adeyemi didn’t end up joining Chelsea back then, even though the Champions League winners were keen on signing the player.
“That was a really interesting experience and Karim also did well. He even trained with the older age group and left his mark,” he stressed.
“But for us and the parents it was always clear that this step to the island [England] at the age of 16 is still too big. Chelsea wanted him to join the academy, but we said we wanted Karim under our own wing.”
With Chelsea failing to sign Adeyemi when he was 16, it remains to be seen whether the Blues will return for him in the future.
