Bertrand Traore: Contracts and work permit block his path to stardom

Bertrand Traore

One of the stars of pre-season was Bertrand Traore, a player who is officially a “trialist” due to the fact that he is not officially a Chelsea player and due to contract and work permit restrictions, he may struggle to ever play in blue.

As he is from outside the EU and does not have citizenship in any EU country, he cannot sign for any club until he is 18.

Therefore, until September, we cannot tie down his services with a contract and even then we may not be able to secure a work permit meaning he would need to be loaned out to a European club in the hope that a work permit could be secured.

This is a situation the club have had to overcome before most notably with Alex, who went on to become a regular member of the first team and then again, currently with young talent Wallace.

This situation could cost Chelsea, with other clubs able to compete for his signature on a level playing field we could find ourselves in a transfer battle for a player that will not be guaranteed to ever be eligible to play for Chelsea.

Traore has a brother Alain who players in France and this could be a draw for him to join a French club so we could have nervous times ahead trying to sign him and then getting him eligible to play for the first team.

These laws seem archaic, the players that Premier League clubs sign would earn large wages for their age and would pay tax and be able to fund themselves. It seems wrong to deny him a chance.