With no European football on offer for the Chelsea in 2026/27, all eyes will be on the domestic competitions as former Liverpool and Real Madrid star, Xabi Alonso undertakes his first season in Premier League management at the helm of the Blues.

This summer’s transfer window has seen the London club break the record for the highest transfer fee for an English player, with their £117 million move for Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers, whilst also adding 21-year-old Marco Palestra to Alonso’s side.

From iconic vacant numbers, to potential switches for established stars, the final squad list can sometimes provide an indication of how the Blues’ squad is shaping up – here are the Chelsea squad numbers for 2026/27.

Goalkeepers

Chelsea’s Spanish shot-stopper, Robert Sanchez, looks set to retain his No.1 shirt, after the former Brighton man featured in all but three of the Blues’ 38 league games last season. Filip Jorgensen, who joined Chelsea from Villarreal in July 2024, is expected to start the season as Sanchez’s back-up.

Defenders

REUTERS/David Klein

New signing Marco Palestra, who joined Chelsea from Atalanta for a reported £47m, will start his first Premier League season wearing his side’s No. 2 shirt, whilst fan favorite stars such as Levi Colwill, Reece James and Malo Gusto all appear to have retained their previous shirt numbers.

Tosin Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile and Trevoh Chalobah are amongst the names tipped to feature in Chelsea’s season opener against Fulham, with Axel Disasi, who only joined Chelsea in 2023, set for a move away from the London-based club.

Midfielders

Chelsea vice-captain, Enzo Fernández, will remain in the No.8 shirt, having led his side to an FA Cup final last season, with an impressive tally of 26 goal involvements across his 61 competitive appearances for Chelsea in 2025/26. The Argentine will likely be deployed alongside Moisés Caicedo in Chelsea’s engine room, with the Ecuadorian also retaining his shirt number from last season.

Omari Kellyman will hope to break into the starting XI under Xabi Alonso, despite his lack of top-flight experience, whilst Roméo Lavia, who has struggled immensely with injuries over previous seasons, will hope to play his way back into contention in the No.45 shirt.

Forwards

All eyes will be on new signing Morgan Rogers, who will be sporting the same No.17 that he donned for England’s National Team at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Rogers will join up with his close friend, Cole Palmer, who will, once again, pull on the No.10 shirt for Chelsea.

Whilst the future of striker Liam Delap is up in the air, he currently remains as Chelsea’s number nine, with Pedro Neto, Joao Pedro and Estevao also retaining their previous shirt numbers.

Available Numbers

As one of Chelsea’s – and the Premier League’s – greatest-ever defenders, it’s somewhat surprising that nobody has opted for the No.3 shirt that was made famous by Ashley Cole through his eight-year stint at the club.

Similarly, no player has opted for the vacant No. 26 shirt that was so famously worn by Chelsea legend, John Terry, in what is likely a move to avoid comparisons to the Premier League great.

Whilst some cultures view the number 13 as unlucky, Michael Ballack put that theory to bed after raising numerous trophies whilst sporting the number for Chelsea from 2006-2010. However, so far, the No.13 remains unclaimed.

Rather alarming reports have emerged in Sweden, revealing that 20 people from a youth team playing at the World Youth Cup in Gothenburg disappeared on the day of the final. Police have now shared a statement on the events in Gothenburg.

The Gothia Cup, or World Youth Cup, this year featured 1,956 teams from 78 countries, including four teams from Ethiopia. According to Swedish police, via The Local Sweden, 20 Ethiopians involved in the football tournament have disappeared.

The hosts at a school where players from the youth football team were staying are said to have discovered, on the day of the final, that Ethiopian players and several of the adults accompanying them had disappeared.

Police Suspect That Disappearance is Voluntary

The police have now confirmed that the group have not returned to Ethiopia and believe that they disappeared of their own accord. They suspect that this is a voluntary case of illegal migration.

Ellinor Halldi has given a statement on behalf of the unit for missing people at the Swedish police’s western region, telling The Local Sweden:

Halldi stated her unit was working with the Migration Agency, the Swedish border police, and authorities in other countries to try and find the missing people, and expected to get notified if one or more of the missing people attempted to cross a border or was encountered by the authorities for another reason.

She added: “There is no indication that anything illegal lies behind this, such as people smuggling or something similar. My experience is that they usually trickle in gradually in the end.”

Press spokesperson at the Gothia Cup, Fredrik Beckman, has also commented on the matter. He explained to local press: “From our perspective it’s strange because this is a team that we have a good relationship with.”

Beckman added that the tournament’s management had filed a report to the police as a “precautionary measure”, and now – ten days after the end of the tournament – the team was still missing.

It’s also reported that the tournament organisers last received correspondence from the Ethiopian team when the club’s contact person thanked them for their “consideration” and added that “it seems that the problem was a communication problem.” But in the email, the contact person gives no information on where the team are or whether they have returned home.

With the World Youth Cup – ‘the world’s largest and most international youth football event’ – hosting different age group competitions, the winners in 2026 came from Sweden, France, Japan, Nigeria, Norway, Ghana, Germany, Tanzania, England, Spain, Kenya, India, and Iceland.

A little under a month has passed since the USA were brutally dumped out of the World Cup by Belgium, and the USMNT have finally made a decision on the future of Mauricio Pochettino. The Stars and Stripes were left black and blue after a 4-1 defeat in the Round of 16, having entered the tournament with high hopes of making a deep run on home soil.

That early optimism came thick and fast, and it was easy to see why. For the first time since 1930, the side had started their campaign with back-to-back victories, and while a 3-2 defeat to Turkiye offered the first glimpse of their fragilities, the USA were riding the crest of a football fever wave. It was not until their humbling exit at the hands of their first real test that the summer’s highs came crashing down, giving way to a sobering-yet-devastating low.

With the host nation seemingly unable to stomach the manner of their exit, fingers were pointed in every direction, with Christian Pulisic among those to shoulder the most blame. Meanwhile, Donald Trump also found himself in the firing line after his intervention to overturn Folarin Balogun’s red card so that he could play sparked political uproar.

Mauricio Pochettino’s Future as USMNT Boss

Phil Noble via Action Images via Reuters

All of that arguing after this summer’s showpiece tournament has completely taken away from the fact Pochettino, the former Tottenham and Chelsea manager, has done a commendable job stateside. While his predecessors have struggled to get the USA any further than qualification, ‘Poch”s charisma and tournament know-how was a saving grace.

Because of his now-underappreciated success over the last few months, the 54-year-old is nearing a contract extension that would see him manage the Stars and Stripes for the next four years. The Athletic reported the news of the deal on Wednesday morning, 23 days after their World Cup Round of 16 exit.

Telemundo’s Andres Cantor first mentioned on Tuesday that talks were “going well and the intention is to be able to announce it soon” ahead of friendly matches in September and October.

The deal would take him through the 2028 Copa America and 2030 World Cup – assuming he doesn’t try to bolt for a European club job before then, with his signature drawing interest from Premier League clubs such as Manchester United over the last 12-18 months.

Pochettino is the Right Man for the USA

Pochettino led the USMNT to their first knockout-round victory at a World Cup since 2002 with their win over Bosnia-Herzegovina in the new Round of 32. Heartbreak in the next round led some to wonder whether Pochettino would return after the team failed to break through the same barrier that halted them in 2010, ’14 and ’22.

But, interestingly, the federation allegedly offered a contract to him before the tournament even began. That’s despite finishing fourth in the 2024–25 Concacaf Nations League and missing out on the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup.

This summer, he vindicated that trust, though, as he broke US records for the most World Cup wins (three) and most goals scored (11) by a national team manager. It really felt as though his footballing identity had made a sustained impact on the side across June and July, and his reign should still be in its early days.