LONDON (AP) \u2014 Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez has been dropped for the team\u2019s next two matches following comments he made during the international break.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old said on a podcast this week that he would like to live in Madrid, amid speculation linking him with a move to Real Madrid.<\/p>\n
Fernandez had already said last month, after Chelsea\u2019s Champions League defeat to Paris Saint-Germain, that he did not know whether he will be at Chelsea next season.<\/p>\n
Chelsea coach Liam Rosenior confirmed on Friday that a decision has been taken by the club to remove the Argentina international from the team for Saturday\u2019s FA Cup quarter-final against Port Vale and next weekend\u2019s Premier League meeting with Manchester City.<\/p>\n
\u201cI spoke with Enzo about an hour ago,\u201d Rosenior said. \u201cAs a football club, with me as part of the decision, he won\u2019t be available for tomorrow\u2019s game or Manchester City next Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s disappointing for Enzo to speak that way. I\u2019ve got no bad words to say about him but a line was crossed in terms of our culture and what we want to build.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fernandez joined Chelsea for a then-British record \u00a3107 million ($142 million) in 2023 and was appointed vice-captain the following year.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnzo, firstly, as a character, a person and a player, I have the utmost respect,\u201d said Rosenior. \u201cHe\u2019s frustrated because he wants us to be successful.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of the decision, it\u2019s not all about me, or the sporting directors, the ownership, the players, we are aligned in our decision. The door is not closed on Enzo. It\u2019s a sanction. You have to protect the culture, and in terms of that, a line was crossed.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/p>\n
The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON (AP) \u2014 Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez has been dropped for the team\u2019s next two matches following comments…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-579538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}