Chelsea ordered to pay £4.25m for wonderkid born to Zimbabwean parents

By Sports Reporter

ENGLAND: A UK tribunal has ordered Chelsea to pay premier league rivals Brighton a record £4.25million compensation for teenage sensation Shumaira Mheuka.

According to media reports the Professional Football Compensation Committee decided at a hearing last week that the London club must pay a basic fee of £1m rising to a potential £4.25m for the 16-year-old striker after he moved to Stamford Bridge in July 2022.

However, for Brighton to get the full compensation, Mheuka would need to play 100 games for Chelsea and earn a cap for England.

Brighton will have a sell-on clause, which is understood to be between 20 and 25 per cent.

The ruling also included another £3.15m compensation for defender Zak Sturge, now 19, who joined Chelsea from Brighton together with Mheuka just after Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital bought the Stamford Bridge club.

Both players remain at Chelsea, with Sturge having spent six months on loan at Peterborough United, and Mheuka has begun playing in the Under-18s.

Mheuka is regarded by Chelsea as a big talent with huge potential. He is a prolific scorer at youth-team level, with six goals in eight matches for the club’s Under-18s this season and he has five goals from just seven England Under-17 appearances.

The teenager was born in England to Zimbabwean parents and his younger brother Tenda plays for the academy at Brighton.

His father, Malcom was born in Mutare and played as an attacking midfielder for Zimbabwe Saints and Circle Cement in the local Premier Soccer League.