Chelsea sign player to LONGEST contract in WORLD football

Carlo Garganese

Updated: 3 Sept 2024 08:56 BST
3 min read

Nicolas Jackson’s imminent new contract at Chelsea is the longest contract in world football, according to Nicolo Schira.

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David Ornstein reported for The Athletic last week that Jackson has agreed a new nine-year contract with the Blues.

Ornstein revealed that Jackson has put pen to paper on an extension to his current contract, which had been due to run out in 2031.

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The deal has not been made official yet, but Schira reports that it is the longest valid contract for a player in world football.

It is just the latest bizarre contract that Chelsea have agreed, with the Blues having become infamous over the last two years for offering incredibly long contracts to players.

Cole Palmer has a contract expiring in 2032, while Renato Veiga and Mike Penders are tied to 2031, and 13 players in total with contracts until 2030.

Chelsea have spent pushing on €1.5 billion on transfer fees since the arrival of Todd Boehly as owner just over two years ago.

Despite this outlay, Chelsea have failed to win a trophy and have endured two miserable seasons in the Premier League finishing 12th and sixth respectively.

Why do Chelsea keep offering such long contracts?

Chelsea have made a habit of offering their players super-sized contracts in terms of length, as this helps to dilute their transfer fees as the total gets spread over the full length of the deal.

So, for Jackson, his £32 million transfer fee when signing from Villarreal was initially spread over eight years meaning that the amount Chelsea had to pay each year on their books was a paltry £4m.

This, along with selling graduates of their academy, is how Chelsea have been able to be so active in the transfer market.

A transfer sale sees the entire fee put on the books straight away, and as there is no fee to amortise for players from the youth team there is nothing to be paid off (in normal transfers you must first pay off any money owed on their transfer fee) so every penny of the sale gets booked as profit.