LONDON – Roberto De Zerbi told people Mykhailo Mudryk could win the Ballon d’Or. This was years before the doping case, before the long absence from competitive football, before Chelsea decided the £88.5m they spent acquiring a Ukrainian winger in January 2023 had a better use than sitting unused in west London. On deadline day, De Zerbi finally got him.
Tottenham Hotspur confirmed the signing of Mudryk on a season-long loan from Chelsea, with an option to buy set at £75m. The 25-year-old had not appeared in a competitive match since November 2024, a doping case having suspended a career already struggling under the weight of its transfer fee. That ban was resolved in July 2026, with WADA confirming charges would not have been brought under current procedural standards. Mudryk cleared the medical and took the number 27 shirt.
He was direct about the reason for choosing Spurs over the other clubs that spent the summer waiting. “I’m so excited to be reunited with Roberto De Zerbi,” Mudryk said after completing the move. “I’m a player who brings speed and creativity.” De Zerbi had coached him at Shakhtar Donetsk before either of them arrived in Western Europe, and nothing since has changed the nature of what Mudryk has called a relationship with his football father.
De Zerbi responded in the language of a manager who has been planning this for some time. “Having worked with Misha earlier,” he said, reaching for the Ukrainian diminutive that signals something warmer than a standard signing announcement, “he can become a very important player for us. I am very happy he chose to come here.” Before this summer, De Zerbi had gone further, stating publicly that Mudryk had the talent to one day win the Ballon d’Or. Tottenham sporting director Johan Lange added that the club believed Mudryk had “the attributes to make a real contribution.”
The transfer arrives at the close of a summer in which De Zerbi reshaped Tottenham at significant cost. The club had already committed £100m for Sandro Tonali from Newcastle before July ended, then added the club-record £85m signing of Mateus Fernandes from West Ham in the weeks that followed. Those two arrivals addressed the engine room of De Zerbi’s preferred system. Mudryk addresses something different: the wide positions where that structure demands pace, directness, and the capacity to carry the ball under pressure in the final third. He arrives, if he is the footballer his coaching staff believe him to be, as the last attacking piece De Zerbi was missing.
Sky Sports reported that Tottenham simultaneously completed a second signing from Chelsea. Tosin Adarabioyo, a 28-year-old centre-back, joined Spurs permanently for £12m, structured as £10m up front and £2m in add-ons. Tosin arrives as a replacement for Kevin Danso, who departed on a season-long loan to Sunderland carrying a £22m purchase obligation if the promoted club avoids relegation.
Chelsea’s decision to loan Mudryk rather than keep him made practical sense. Cole Palmer’s brilliant start to the Premier League season under Xabi Alonso demonstrated the depth of attacking options Stamford Bridge already contained: Pedro Neto’s pace from the right, Palmer’s quality through the middle, and a creative infrastructure already functioning at a high level. A winger who had not played competitive football in twenty-two months could not step into that directly. Chelsea retain the £75m buy option. They have not closed the door on Mudryk, only moved him into an environment where he can prove himself under a manager uniquely suited to making the case.
Goal confirmed that the option is not mandatory, leaving Chelsea with a decision to make next summer about a player they originally valued at £88.5m. What that figure means in a market now being asked to evaluate Mudryk on the basis of a loan season, after two years away, remains to be determined.
De Zerbi has spent this summer commissioning a squad built around his convictions. Most of those decisions were supported by data, scouting reports, and positional logic. The Mudryk decision was supported by something older and less reducible: the specific knowledge of what this footballer can do when a manager who believes in him is on the touchline. Whether the player who has just walked back into competitive football after two years can act on that knowledge is the question the season is now obligated to answer.
Related Posts
