Last week, Chelsea’s new manager Jose Mourinho joined the Blue and started the rebuilding process right away as he did during his last tenure with the EPL club. He has a long list of players he wanted to include in his squad to strengthen his team across all departments, including attack, defense, and midfield, and one of his interesting contenders for midfield area is Porto’s Eliaquim Mangala – the 22-year-old sensational central defender from Primeira Liga. Until recently, he was a junior player but after a great success in the last domestic season, he got promoted from France’s Under-21 team to senior French national soccer team for their tour to South America. Another key factor that can affect his asking price by his club is whether he would make his senior debut for France or not, coz at the moment, Porto is reportedly asking a price of £30 million for the defender but if he becomes a senior player for France’s national team, his club would surely hike his price tag also. In any case, it should not be a reason to worry for a high net worth club like Chelsea.
Apart from Chelsea, Mangala has also been in the list of aspiring players of Belgium and Democratic Republic of Congo for their national team coz he is not a French native perhaps he was born at a place which is very near to Paris, but since he always wanted to play for France, he never led those offers to materialize. He recently talked about Chelsea’s offer and his native team to a news source where he said, “If (Jose Mourinho ) is true, it makes me happy. People don’t pay enough attention to the Portuguese league even though Porto is a big club. There are a lot of interesting European clubs, there’s a lot of talk, but I’m happy at Porto and I don’t worry myself with those things. I was contacted by Belgium, and by the Democratic Republic of Congo, but I’ve always refused. I wanted to play for France.”
No one used to know about Mangala until last season when he got a chance to play in under-21 team after Raphael Varane’s right knee injury and he capitalized on each available opportunity by performing brilliantly on the field. He is also aware of how his luck was with him throughout the last season, but he should also remember that things will not be so easy for him if he joins The Blue and plays in the EPL next season.