Jorrel Hato: Chelsea sign Ajax defender for £37m on seven-year contract

The Blues boast seven centre-backs in their current squad, but only Levi Colwill, who played regularly last season, and Benoit Badiashile are naturally left-sided.

Frenchman Badiashile’s 2024-25 campaign was disrupted by a hamstring injury in December, while just three Premier League starts suggested head coach Enzo Maresca wanted another option to compete with Colwill at the heart of defence.

Hato brings versatility, having spent large parts of last season at Ajax playing at left-back and, with Ben Chilwell firmly out of favour, the 19-year-old can also offer competition to regular full-back Marc Cucurella given the Champions League campaign to come.

In 2023-24, Hato played 80% of his football at centre-back, most commonly in a 4-2-3-1 formation. However, last season, new head coach Francesco Farioli deployed him at left-back for 94% of his minutes as part of a 4-3-3 formation.

Hato has already played 111 competitive games for Ajax’s first team, after making his debut aged just 16 years and 335 days in 2023. That made him the club’s third youngest player to feature in Eredivisie after Clarence Seedorf and Ryan Gravenberch. He also won his first Netherlands cap less than a year later.

Since that first appearance, Hato has been nearly ever-present for Ajax. Of players from Europe’s top six leagues born after 1 January 2003, he has played the most minutes at club level in all competitions since the start of 2023-24 (8,347), clear of Jude Bellingham (7,988) and Lamine Yamal (7,506).