Chelsea signing has new ‘cursed’ number announced – but won’t play for Blues until next season

Geovany Quenda may be abandoning Sporting next season, but they’ve still given him the honour of the club’s most legendary number.

The 18-year-old talent will be moving to Chelsea next summer in a £44million deal which was agreed in March.

Due to his greenness and rapid development under Ruben Amorim and Rui Borges, Quenda will remain in Lisbon for 2025/26, albeit with a new shirt.

The teen talent wore No.57 during his breakthrough campaign where he scored two goals and recorded four assists to win the Primera Liga and Taca de Portugal.

But he’s now announced as the team’s new No.7, a number still revered from Luis Figo, Simao Sabrosa, and Ricardo Sa Pinto’s time in green and white.

It’s also related to the only Sporting product better than Figo – Cristiano Ronaldo – although football’s all-time top scorer never actually wore seven at the Alvalade.

He began with No.28 at his boyhood club, switching to No.7 at Manchester United where Sir Alex Ferguson correctly deemed him talented enough to take it off David Beckham.

Quenda is still taking a revered number in his homeland, though, and one that’s talked about being cursed due to the players that tried and failed in it post-Figo.

In fact, there were claims the club even considered abandoning the number altogether due to the curse, with players like Shikabala, Joel Campbell, and Matheus Pereira completely flopping with it on their backs despite big expectations.

The number has been vacant since 2022, but A Bola report that Quenda wanted it as a tribute to Ronaldo’s legendary career with United, Real Madrid, Juventus, Al Nassr and Portugal.

His club can’t exactly blame him either, given that they’ve released and worn a whopping nine CR7 alternate kits in the past two years as part of a deal with Nike.

Quenda was originally expected to directly follow Ronaldo’s career path by joining Man United, but Chelsea instead won the battle for Amorim’s former star.

His £44m signing came as part of a £62.4m package that included teammate Dario Essugo who spent last season on loan at LaLiga side Las Palmas.

The double swoop followed a trend of snapping up young talent under the club’s new Clearlake Capital ownership.

Brazilian wonderkid Estevao Willian and Ecuadorian Kendry Paez were also signed at the ripe age of 17.

Much like Quenda, they were also both loaned straight back to their former sides, with Estevao shining at Palmeiras and Paez at Independiente del Valle.

While Quenda awaits his chance to play alongside hero Ronaldo with Portugal’s senior side, he did get the chance to impress at the Under-21 European Championships and duly did so.

Quenda shone at the competition won by England and was named in the team of the tournament with three goals.