Chelsea news: Dario Essugo set to be Moises Caicedo’s understudy

In the midfielder’s own words, he is also a “chill” character away from the pitch. He grew up in the Odivelas suburb of Lisbon, was a multi-sport athlete in his youth but took to football in the school playground.

He first suffered a rejection from his mother’s handball club at CAC da Pontinha Club but soon impressed UD Santa Maria Club, before ultimately ending up in Sporting’s academy.

Essugo achieved his goal of emulating his idol William Carvalho, now at Betis, by lining up for Sporting in midfield, aged just 16 and six days old.

After becoming the youngest player to play for Sporting, he became the youngest Portuguese player to play in the Champions League, playing in a competition that other idols, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, N’Golo Kante and Toni Kroos, all excelled in.

Those idols showed Essugo looked towards La Liga and, after a loan spell at Portuguese second division Chaves, he played in Spain’s top flight last season with Las Palmas.

Although relegated, Essugo played well enough to attract Chelsea and said of the spell at the island nation on his Instagram account: “It’s been a season of personal growth, with highs and lows, but at all times I tried to leave it all on the field.”

But his post when leaving Sporting was more emotional, despite only making 25 appearances in the first team, he wrote: “I believe I left something worth keeping – a piece of my childhood, my youth, my soul.”

Essugo targets “playing as much as he can” despite being Caicedo’s understudy in a competitive midfield space, featuring Enzo Fernandez, Romeo Lavia, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall – and returning loanee Andrey Santos.

He said: “I want to win as much as possible, as many titles as possible. Obviously, I want to win the Champions League, but also the Premier League because it’s very difficult. I want to win titles, play as much as possible at Chelsea and be part of the club’s history.”

The first time we will see Essugo is at the Club World Cup and he could make his debut for Chelsea against LAFC on Monday evening. Longer term, he will relieve the pressure on Caciedo as Chelsea embark of their return to the demanding Champions League after three seasons away.