{"id":18576,"date":"2025-08-04T02:11:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T06:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/08\/04\/chelsea-secures-promising-ajax-defender-pigeon-in-strategic-move\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T02:11:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T06:11:12","slug":"chelsea-secures-promising-ajax-defender-pigeon-in-strategic-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/08\/04\/chelsea-secures-promising-ajax-defender-pigeon-in-strategic-move\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea Secures Promising Ajax Defender Pigeon in Strategic Move"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Chelsea has officially signed 19-year-old defender Jarrell Hato from Ajax, as announced on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>The transfer deal is valued at 46.5 million euros (approximately $53 million), not including bonuses, according to ESPN NL. The club confirmed that Hato has inked a long-term contract, committing to Chelsea until 2032, and will meet his new teammates later this week.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u2019m thrilled and delighted to be here,&#8221; Hato expressed after signing. &#8220;I\u2019ve been considering my future a lot and wanted to progress in my career. Chelsea is the ideal place for me to achieve that, which makes me very happy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Despite being only 19, Hato has already made over 100 appearances for Ajax and has played six times for the Netherlands&#8217; national team. He made history as the youngest player to debut for Ajax&#8217;s Big 17 earlier this year and is capable of playing both left back and center back.<\/p>\n<p>Courtship from some of Europe&#8217;s leading clubs, including Arsenal, was reported last summer and earlier this year.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline inline-photo full\">\n<figure><picture><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/a.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2025%2F0803%2Fr1527357_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=570&amp;format=jpg, https:\/\/a.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2025%2F0803%2Fr1527357_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=1140&amp;cquality=40&amp;format=jpg 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 376px)\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/a.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2025%2F0803%2Fr1527357_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=375, https:\/\/a.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2025%2F0803%2Fr1527357_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=750&amp;cquality=40&amp;format=jpg 2x\" media=\"(max-width: 375px)\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" class=\"lazyload lazyload\" data-image-container=\".inline-photo\" height=\"320\" width=\"570\"><\/source><\/source><\/picture><figcaption class=\"photoCaption\">Chelsea has finalized the acquisition of Dutch defender Jarrell Hato from Ajax. <cite>Getty Images<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Ajax&#8217;s technical director, Alex Kroes, acknowledged that losing Hato is a significant challenge for the Eredivisie club, and he expressed well-wishes for the player while thanking him for his contributions. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;With Hato&#8217;s departure, we are losing a key defender,&#8221; Kroes stated. &#8220;He is not just an exceptional talent and player, but also possesses a great character. We would have preferred to keep him for at least another year, but we understand his desire to pursue this exciting venture in the Premier League.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We genuinely wish him well in this new challenge, are proud of his achievements with Ajax, and hope he finds success in England.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Hato joined the Ajax academy from Sparta Rotterdam in 2018 and signed his first professional contract at just 16 years old.<\/p>\n<p>As the Club World Cup champions, Chelsea will kick off their new Premier League season against rivals Crystal Palace at home on August 17.<\/p>\n<p><em>This report includes information from PA Sports.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Fan Take:<\/strong> This transfer is significant not just for Chelsea, but for soccer enthusiasts as it underscores the increasing trend of young talents making impactful moves to top-tier leagues. Hato&#8217;s acquisition could herald a new wave of defensive prowess for Chelsea, potentially shaping the future of their backline and igniting a competitive spirit in the Premier League.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chelsea has officially signed 19-year-old defender Jarrell Hato from Ajax, as announced on Sunday. The transfer deal is valued at 46.5 million euros (approximately $53 million), not including bonuses, according to ESPN NL. The club confirmed that Hato has inked a long-term contract, committing to Chelsea until 2032, and will meet his new teammates later [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[3842,200,381,40,372,46,5156,4216,892,45,5227],"class_list":{"0":"post-18576","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-ajax","9":"tag-chelsea","10":"tag-defender","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-move","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-pigeon","15":"tag-promising","16":"tag-secures","17":"tag-soccer","18":"tag-strategic"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}