{"id":69971,"date":"2025-07-17T13:19:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T13:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/69971\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T13:19:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T13:19:13","slug":"chelsea-fringe-player-has-won-over-staff-at-club-after-club-world-cup-contribution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/69971\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea fringe player has won over staff at club after Club World Cup contribution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro will have to take a lot of the credit for Chelsea\u2019s Club World Cup success.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Both players were excellent in the tournament, leading Enzo Maresca<\/a>\u2018s men to victory against Paris Saint-Germain in the final.<\/p>\n

Palmer bagged a brace, while Pedro scored Chelsea<\/a>\u2018s other goal as the Blues went on to win 3-0. Premier League<\/a> legend Alan Shearer named Palmer<\/a> in his Team of the Tournament.<\/p>\n

En route to the final, though, the likes of Christopher Nkunku<\/a>, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Tosin Adarabioyo were also able to make an impact. All three players managed to find the back of the net in previous rounds.<\/p>\n

\"ToddPhoto by Jean Catuffe\/Getty ImagesChelsea staff impressed with Christopher Nkunku<\/p>\n

Some were surprised by Nkunku\u2019s inclusion in Chelsea\u2019s squad<\/a> for the Club World Cup<\/a>, with the forward\u2019s future in doubt.<\/p>\n

He made just nine starts in the Premier League last season and is being heavily linked with a move away from Stamford Bridge<\/a>. Inter Milan are one club reportedly interested in Nkunku<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, Maresca decided to give him an opportunity at the tournament and he took it, which has not gone unnoticed.<\/p>\n

According to BBC Sport<\/a>, Nkunku has won a lot of support inside Chelsea and impressed club staff after his contribution in America.<\/p>\n

It was the 27-year-old who restored the Blues\u2019 lead over Benfica in the round of 16, scoring in extra time to put his side 2-1 up. In total, Nkunku made six appearances at the Club World Cup, with half of them being starts. He failed to appear in only one game, the 3-1 defeat to Flamengo in the group stage.<\/p>\n

\"ChelseaPhoto by PAUL ELLIS\/AFP via Getty ImagesWhat Enzo Maresca did with Christopher Nkunku during training at Club World Cup<\/p>\n

When Chelsea were still in the US, it was reported that Maresca actually used Nkunku as a defensive midfielder<\/a> in training.<\/p>\n

It is not something you would expect to see on the pitch during a competitive match, though, especially when Maresca has Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia.<\/p>\n

At Chelsea, there is a lot of competition there and in attack, which is ultimately the reason why Nkunku may have to depart this summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro will have to take a lot of the credit for Chelsea\u2019s Club World…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":69972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[36652,2217,221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-69971","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-christopher-nkunku","9":"tag-club-world-cup","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114868778955865887","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}