Veiga makes £26m move to Villarreal

Defender Renato Veiga has completed a permanent move from Chelsea to Villarreal for a fee rising to £26m.

The 22-year-old joined the Blues from Basel for £12m in July 2024 and made 18 appearances for the club during the first half of last season.

Struggling for regular game time, Veiga then went on loan to Serie A side Juventus in January, where he featured 15 times in the league.

The Portugal international was deemed surplus to requirements by manager Enzo Maresca and was training in the so-called 'bomb squad' - a group of senior players away from the first team - having asked to play at centre-back instead of left-back midway through last season.

His move will see Chelsea raise an estimated £251.7m from selling 11 players, to balance £277m of spending on nine new recruits in a busy summer of transfers.