Hato is said to be Chelsea s 17th contract signed in after 2031

Chelsea completed another signing, and they signed 19-year-old Ajax all-round defender Harto. The new star reportedly attracted the attention of almost all European giants. According to internal information, the transfer fee is about 44 million euros. His contract with Chelsea is signed until 2032.

So far, Harto has become the 17th player in Chelsea's contract to last at least until the end of the 2030/31 season. This is almost equivalent to a whole team (including substitutes). Two of them — Nicholas Jackson and Renato Vega — may still leave this summer. In addition, Muderick is currently suspended and his future in London is also undecided. But even if they are excluded, there are still 14-15 players holding a long contract of 6 years or more, which is rare.

, especially considering that other top European clubs rarely offer such long appointments. The 16 giant clubs in Europe have only 12 contracts of similar length.

Arsenal, Manchester United, Newcastle, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern, Dortmund, Juventus, Inter Milan, AC Milan and Naples have not even a single share. Chelsea's closest "follower" is its London rival Tottenham, who have four such contracts.

If you look at the further 2031/32 season, the comparison will be even more amazing: Chelsea has 10 players with contracts, and the other clubs have only 1 player in total!

The only one is Haaland, whose contract with Manchester City is signed until 2034 - one of the most expensive contracts in sports history. In the Premier League, Haaland is undoubtedly the king of long-term contracts.

So, why is Chelsea keen on opening ultra-long contracts?

In the 2022/23 season, with Burleigh's acquisition and recruitment wave, this strategy helped Chelsea meet the requirements of the Fiscal Fairness Act (FFP) - the secret is the amortization mechanism. For example, a transfer fee of 80 million euros can be shared on the club's books at 10 million euros per year.

For this reason, UEFA (UEFA) has introduced new regulations to fill loopholes - setting the amortization limit to 5 years.

So the question is: Why is Chelsea still using this strategy?

Although there are several secondary reasons, the key is that the amortization mechanism still has room for operation at the Premier League level, because the Premier League has not yet adopted UEFA's new year limit. This allows Chelsea to effectively alleviate short-term fiscal pressure even when it frequently signs.