Almost from the moment that Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea and began running the Stamford Bridge side, the club has had a system in place of buying in young players before sending them out on loan in order to gain more experience. The sale of the team by Abramovich in the May of 2022 doesn’t seem to have had any impact on that, with the Blues continuing to bring in players with strong reputations before allowing them to head out on loan. This season, the club has the added complication of Champions League matches to contend with, so which players have been sent out on loan for the season?
Nicolas Jackson
Arguably the highest-profile player that Chelsea sanctioned a loan move for this summer is Nicolas Jackson. The player from the Gambia was born in 2001 and played for Casa Sports in Senegal before being signed up by Villarreal. He was initially put in the B team there and sent on loan to fellow Spanish side Mirandés, eventually playing 35 league games for Villarreal before being sold to Chelsea in 2023 for £32 million. He signed an eight-year deal to join the Blues, meaning that he’s contracted to remain at Stamford Bridge until 2031, having played 65 league games and scoring 24 goals.
The decision of Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital to repeatedly incrementally increase the ability of the club’s players means that there is no place for Jackson in the current line-up. As a result, he was linked with a move away all summer, with some reports linking him with Newcastle United as a replacement for Liverpool-bound Alexander Isak. Instead, a loan agreement was reached with Bayern Munich to send Jackson to Germany on the first of September 2025, resulting in him heading to the Allianz Arena for the 2025-2026 campaign. A fee of €16.5 million was reportedly agreed and an obligation to buy him for £56.2 million put in place.
Mamadou Sarr
Whilst Nicolas Jackson’s loan move was agreed in order to get him off the Chelsea books in the long term, the loan for Mamadou Sarr is one that is designed to give the young centre-back some more experience. Born in the commune of Martigues in France in 2005, he is the son of Pape Sarr, the Senegalese international. His footballing education began with Étoile Sportive de Saint-Laurent-Blangy before he joined his father’s club of Lens, moving to Lyon in 2018. As a 16-year-old in the 2021-2022 season, he established himself as a starting centre-back with the under-19 team.
It is fair to say, therefore, that Sarr is thought of as being a long-term defensive prospect for Chelsea. Having played for Lyon just twice in Ligue 1, Sarr was sold to Strasbourg at the start of the 2024-2025 season, playing 27 league games for the French club before being sold to Chelsea on an eight-year contract in the summer of 2025. As part of the agreement, Sarr was sent straight back to Strasbourg on loan for the 2025-2026 campaign, giving the player time to mature and develop on someone else’s books before he heads back to Stamford Bridge in the future.
Mike Penders
The thing about Chelsea’s plan to buy as many talented youngsters as possible is that it doesn’t take long before you start to get to the names of players that not many people know about. Mike Penders almost certainly fits into that category, with the young goalkeeper having begun his career with Jong Genk before moving to the senior team and then signing for Chelsea in the summer of 2025. The Blues decided that the best thing for him would be to gain some experience, so a decision was taken early in the summer to send him to Ligue 1 side Strasbourg on loan.
Chelsea have completed the signing of Mike Penders from KRC Genk, with the goalkeeper to officially join from next summer. ✍️🇧🇪
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) August 27, 2024
Kendry Páez
If you are a teenager playing professional football, there is a good chance that Chelsea will sign you up if you show some talent. Attacking player Ray Kendry Páez Andrade, better known as Kendry Páez, was born in Ecuador in 2007 and made his way to Independiente del Valle, attracting interest from the likes of Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund. It was Chelsea that won the race to sign his signature, joining the Premier League side after turning 18 in the May of 2025. Because of the fact that BlueCo have shares in both the Stamford Bridge side and the Ligue 1 team Strasbourg, Páez has headed there on loan.
Chelsea Football Club has agreed a deal to sign teenage midfielder Kendry Paez from Independiente del Valle! ✍️
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) June 5, 2023
Aarón Anselmino
The state of modern football nowadays is such that deals within deals can often see players head to other clubs in order to facilitate certain moves. In the case of Aarón Anselmino, it is likely that his name may have come up during the negotiations to see Jamie Gittens depart Borussia Dortmund in order to head to Chelsea, which is why Anselmino will spend the 2025-2026 campaign on loan at the German club. A defender that the Blues signed from Boca Juniors for £15.6 million, he has already made his Chelsea debut thanks to their participation in the Club World Cup in the summer.
Marc Guiu
Marc Guiu, not to be confused with Crystal Palace’s Marc Guehí, was born in Barcelona in 2006 and joined the Catalan side’s youth team as a seven-year-old. He eventually made his way into the Barcelona B team, getting a first-team call-up in 2023. In 2024, he was signed by Chelsea for around €6 million, making his debut in a 2-0 loss to Manchester United in the Premier League. He helped the club to victory in the Europa Conference League, then this summer a decision was taken to let him gain some top-flight experience with newly promoted Sunderland, only to then recall him when Liam Delap got injured.
Marc Guiu has been recalled from his loan spell at Sunderland. pic.twitter.com/Ldtcan7kAS
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) September 1, 2025
David Datro Fofana
There have been a number of players named ‘Fofana’ who have made it in English football, with David Datro Fofana being the latest to try. Born in the Ivory Coast in 2002, his footballing career began with Abidjan City before he joined Molde in 2021. He signed for Chelsea three years later, but has already been sent out on loan to Union Berlin, Burnley and Göztepe even before this summer. Newly promoted Turkish side Fatih Karagümrük agreed to sign him on the 13th of September, with the deal seeing him head to Turkey until the end of the 2025-2026 campaign.
David Datro Fofana has joined Turkish side Fatih Karagümrük S.K. on a season-long loan.
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) September 13, 2025

