Ex-Chelsea wonderkid moves to Cyprus after Levante exit
Cameron Smith
- 2 Oct 2023 16:10 BST
- 5 min read
Former Chelsea wonderkid Charly Musonda has joined Anorthosis Famagusta in Cyprus after being released by Levante in September.
The now 26-year-old moved to Stamford Bridge from Anderlecht’s youth team in 2012, but it wasn’t until 2017 that he made his senior debut for the Blues.
Musonda made 71 appearances for Chelsea’s U18s, U19s and U21s, scoring 16 goals and providing nine assists. He made seven senior appearances for the club, with his only two starts coming in the 2017-18 Carabao Cup.
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The Belgian scored in a 5-1 win over Nottingham Forest before he contributed an assist during a 2-1 victory over Everton, meaning he scored or assisted on both of his first-team starts for Chelsea.
He was touted as the next best thing to emerge from the Cobham academy after an electric start to life at Chelsea, but injury problems soon took their toll.
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Musonda’s injury problems
In total, Musonda has missed a combined tally of 178 games through injury in his career.
The most damaging came in 2019, when Musonda required knee surgery. He missed over two years of action and 125 games through that injury, which reportedly led to him contemplating retirement.
Musonda spent loan spells away from Chelsea at Real Betis, Celtic and Vitesse, but injury problems meant he only scored one goal across those three loans combined.
In fact, the last time Musonda scored a competitive goal was for Chelsea’s U23 side in the Premier League 2 in August 2018.
He joined Levante on a free transfer last year after his contract at Chelsea ended, and while he made 16 league appearances in the Spanish second tier, only two of those were starts.
Musonda left in September and has now found a new home in Cyprus with Anorthosis, who are currently top of the first division.
Musonda has 12 caps for Belgium’s U21 side but he never managed to secure a senior international call-up.
