Big Departures, Bigger Fees: The 5 Biggest Player Sales in Chelsea’s History
Chelsea have been one of football’s transfer market masters over the past 20 years and their ability to time player departures expertly while extracting maximum profit from sales has kept them purring from a financial perspective.
Few clubs have mastered the art of the sale as perfectly as Chelsea and this summer alone, the club has earned close to £250m through selling deadwood and fringe squad members.
Indeed, since 2015, no other club in world football has matched Chelsea’s selling power, with the Blues posting well over £1 billion in player sale figures over the last decade.
To cap another successful summer transfer window for the Blues, we’ve taken a look back at the five biggest player sales in Chelsea’s history.
- Noni Madueke to Arsenal (2025 – £52m)
In January 2023, Chelsea moved to sign up-and-coming winger Noni Madueke from Dutch giants PSV after the youngster had impressed on the flank in the Eredivisie.
Chelsea paid around £28.5m to bring Madueke to Stamford Bridge and after a peripheral first campaign and a half, the wide attacker enjoyed a breakout season in 2024/25, scoring 11 times in 46 appearances in all competitions.
This summer, Arsenal came calling however, and Chelsea were happy to cash in, almost doubling their initial investment by selling the 23-year-old for a mammoth £52m to their London rivals. Madueke is expected to play a supporting role for the Gunners this term as back-up to Bukayo Saka.
- Mason Mount to Manchester United (2023 – £55m)
Mason Mount had spent 18 years of his life on Chelsea’s books, rising up through the youth ranks in West London before becoming a first-team staple and Champions League-winning hero, however, the midfielder was determined to force an exit from Stamford Bridge in the summer of 2023.
Chelsea played hardball over the deal however, and despite Mount entering the final year of his contract, the Blues managed to squeeze £55m out of Man Utd with another £5m chucked in on top in easily achievable add-ons.
Injuries have blighted Mount’s time with United, though few Blues fans would begrudge their former academy starlet having a luckier time of it this term.
- Oscar to Shanghai Port (2017 – £60m)
In the summer of 2016 and the winter of early 2017, the Chinese Super League embarked on an aggressive recruitment drive, targeting a number of high-profile performers in Europe’s elite divisions in a bid to raise standards in their own competition.
Brazilian international and Chelsea fan favourite Oscar was on their radar during the winter transfer window and though he was reluctant to make the move East at first, the attacker’s head was eventually turned.
Chelsea had signed Oscar from Internacional for just £19m in 2021, so they found it difficult to say no when Shanghai tabled an offer of around £60m for the inventive forward.
- Kai Havertz to Arsenal (2023 – £65m)
German international Kai Havertz never fully convinced during his time with Chelsea, so it was something of a surprise when Arsenal agreed gamble to £65m on the forward in 2023.
Havertz helped an unfancied Chelsea side to defy the odds in the 2021 Champions League Final, netting the only goal in the Blues’ 1-0 win over Man City, though his performances were largely inconsistent overall.
The attacker arrived from Bayer Leverkusen with plenty of pedigree in September 2020 but never really lived up to his billing. It raised eyebrows then, when Arsenal were happy to pay Chelsea an initial £65m to sign Havertz, with many observers likening the transfer to a roll of the dice at Casino.com UK.
Arsenal’s decision to play transfer-market roulette with Havertz hasn’t quite paid off and now the German is set to be replaced in the starting XI by Viktor Gyokeres.
- Eden Hazard to Real Madrid (2019 – £88.5m)
Enigmatic winger Eden Hazard became Real Madrid’s most expensive signing ever when he joined Los Blancos in 2019 for an initial £88.5m (€100m), though the Belgian would quickly become one of the club’s worst-ever pieces of business.
Hazard was a two-time Premier League and two-time Europa League winner with Chelsea, and his dazzling close control and dribbling skills made him an iconic cult hero at Stamford Bridge.
However, Hazard’s career nose-dived once he left Chelsea. Persistent injury and fitness issues as well as question marks over his commitment and professionalism, left Hazard’s Real Madrid career prospects in tatters and he retired in 2023.
