Why Chelsea want Jorrel Hato – the teenager with experience beyond his years

New York Times

4 days ago

Last month, Football Benchmark unveiled its Golden Boy Index in partnership with Tuttosport, ranking the top 100 young footballers eligible for the coveted annual award.
Much of it reads like a list of players that Chelsea either have already signed, have considered acquiring or would like to buy. They are the most heavily represented club on the list with seven players (eight if you include Geovany Quenda, who joins from Sporting CP in the summer of 2026). Other names in the upper reaches reported by The Athletic to be under consideration for transfers to Stamford Bridge over the last 12 months include Dean Huijsen, Ethan Nwaneri, Malick Fofana and Kobbie Mainoo.
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Then there is Jorrel Hato, the 11th-ranked player and fourth-ranked defender on the list, who looks like he will become the next golden teenager to sign for the newly crowned world champions. Chelsea are on the verge of agreeing a deal with Ajax worth in excess of €40million (£34.8m; $46.7m).
It is no surprise that Hato ranks so highly on the Football Benchmark list, which factors playing time as well as sporting performance and club strength into its ranking algorithm. He has just finished his second season as a regular starter for Ajax, and has well over 100 professional club appearances — and about 9,000 minutes played — to his name despite only turning 19 in March.
Even in a sport which routinely elevates young men to stardom before adulthood, Hato's rise has been startlingly quick. He became the third youngest Eredivisie debutant in Ajax's history when he came on as a substitute against Cambuur in February 2023, and the youngest player ever to start as captain for the club in a European match when he wore the armband in a Europa League match against AEK Athens the following December. He was 17 years and 282 days old.
The secret to the speed of Hato's breakthrough is not just physical, though his pace and strength stand out on the pitch. Nor is it only technical, though his comfort level on the ball is everything that you would expect from an Ajax product. Nor is it simply his personality, though he matured from a self-confessed troublemaker in school into a quiet leader at academy level.
'In my eyes, it's everything,' former Ajax captain and coach Frank de Boer said of Hato in an interview as part of a club video feature on the 19-year-old released last month. 'He's fast, he's strong, a good height, not too tall for a central defender, overall good technique, pretty complete. A true Ajax player.'
Hato's rounded skill set has equipped him to perform impressively at left-back and centre-back, and in a range of roles that shift with the circumstances of the game and the needs of his team.
According to SkillCorner, Hato has played 51 per cent of his Eredivisie minutes for Ajax since the start of 2022-23 at left-back and 46 per cent at centre-back, with the remaining three per cent being spent in more advanced areas on the left side of the pitch. His pass start locations, mapped in the graphic below, underline that he is equally comfortable building out from the back in possession and pushing on into the middle third of the pitch:
In his first full season for Ajax, he was mainly utilised as a ball-carrying centre-back, capable of bringing the ball out of defence and starting progressive moves. Last season, Francesco Farioli deployed him most often as a left-back who inverted into midfield in possession, though he has also flashed the ability to overlap into crossing positions and supply accurate deliveries.
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'He has a positive appearance (on the pitch), like 'Bring it on, I'll do my thing',' De Boer added in the video. 'He dribbles past people at the right moment. Ajax should always be able to bring on youth players with bravery. In my eyes, he is a perfect example.'
Hato's bravery is also reflected in his progressive passing; as the breakdown of his most common line-breaking passes below illustrates, he is capable of punching the ball forward through central areas as well as simply advancing the play down the left flank:
Hato's openness to play in several different defensive positions matters just as much as his ability to do so for Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca, who does not view footballers in narrow specialist terms. 'If there is a player who just wants to play in just one position, they are going to struggle,' he said in a press conference in January. 'They have to adapt, they have to learn to play in different positions, which is a good thing for the team.'
Maresca's comments were a pointed message to Renato Veiga, whose January departure on loan to Juventus to play more at centre-back created a gap on the left of Chelsea's defence behind Marc Cucurella. Despite Malo Gusto and Reece James at times shifting across to deputise for him, the Spaniard led the entire first-team squad in minutes played across all competitions in 2024-25 and clocked up around 5,000 minutes for club and country.
Veiga's expected sale this summer underlines the need for a longer-term alternative to Cucurella. Hato has a very different physical profile — standing 6ft (182cm) tall, he is far less likely to be targeted with a barrage of opposition high balls — but more than a few of the same qualities, including a rare ability to find the net in the final third.
Chelsea sources, kept anonymous to protect relationships, say they want to give Maresca the ability to rotate across all positions as he balances Premier League, Champions League and domestic cup commitments this season. Those sources at the club state that there is a belief that the eight-year age gap between Cucurella and Hato creates the potential for a perfect mentor/mentee relationship at left-back. There are worse role models for the young Dutchman than a player who rebounded from being booed by his own supporters early in his Stamford Bridge career to blossom into a key player and a cult hero for many fans.
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No one would expect Hato to come to Chelsea and immediately supplant Cucurella in Maresca's strongest XI, but he has done everything in his journey to this point more quickly than expected. In football terms, he is older than most of his peers, and better, too.