Who is Said Remadnia? Chelsea in transfer swoop for 'next Rayan Cherki' | OneFootball

Blues target move for another teenage wonderkid

Sporting sensation Geovany Quenda, 18, joins Chelsea this summer, as does Dastan Satpayev, 17, of Kazakhstan. Both have already spent time at Cobham for medical assessments and to meet some of their future team-mates.

Geovany Quenda is joining Chelsea this summer

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And the hunt for talented youngsters continues. It has led the Blues’ scouting department to a 16-year-old winger tearing it up for Marseille’s youth sides.

Said Remadnia has been playing above his age group for the Marseille Under-19s, where he turned heads in the autumn with his mercurial playing style and incredible technique during the French club’s UEFA Youth League campaign.

The competition is effectively the youth version of the Champions League and has been a breeding ground as well as a stage for some of the best young talents on the continent over the years.

Remadnia is beginning to look like one of those, certainly within his age group, and one goal he scored against Newcastle in the competition back in November alerted English scouts to his talents. Rumours of interest from Chelsea followed immediately.

To watch the Marseille-born winger, born in 2009 to Algerian and Tunisian parents, is to wonder how a defender might possibly stop him in his tracks midway through one of his mazy dribbles.

His ability to carry the ball is beyond his years - a mixture of pacey dribbling through the centre of the pitch and slower ball-carrying out wide, where he shields the ball and each touch is not with his instep but, rather, a controlled drag of the top of the ball with his studs.

In front of goal, Remadnia already seems to exude calm and composure, favouring the far-right corner with his right foot, often having cut in from his usual position of left wing.

He has just been called up to represent Tunisia Under-20s where, at 16, he is the second-youngest player in their latest squad. He could have played for Algeria and previously represented France’s U17s, but has picked Tunisia.

Remadnia’s level of performances this season has drummed up a clamour for him across Europe. While Marseille hold out hope he will commit his long-term future to them, his representatives have made it clear they believe a five-year deal at Chelsea once he turns 18 is possible if the winger chooses west London over the south of France or elsewhere. If he did pick Chelsea, he would of course join their academy, not the first team.

Contact from Chelsea and interest from further afield has come as little surprise to those close to Remadnia or Marseille’s youth system. His effortless style of play and effectiveness in the final third has drawn comparisons with Manchester City’s Rayan Cherki, who is also of north African descent and, at Lyon, similarly came through at a Ligue 1 academy.