Matej Delac: The Danijel Subašić understudy who became Chelsea's longest-serving player
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Published 02/07/2018 at 14:10 GMT+1
Chelsea's longest serving player left the club at the weekend. But you'd be forgiven for never having heard of him. Dan Levene on the story of Matej Delac, and the eight others released by the Blues this summer.
Matej Delac - Chelsea warms up
Image credit: Reuters
Chelsea's longest serving player left the club at the weekend. But you'd be forgiven for never having heard of him. Dan Levene on the story of Matej Delac, and the eight others released by the Blues this summer.
It was current ITV World Cup pundit Slaven Bilic who started an odyssey, which would result in almost nine years, and no appearances, for the Croatian keeper at Chelsea.
The then national team manager of the former Yugoslav republic called-up Delac to the squad for a friendly against England at Wembley.
Within days he was a Chelsea player.
Back in 2009, Chelsea was a different club.Carlo Ancelotti was the manager. But, more significantly, Frank Arnesen was the man in charge of spotting and recruiting player talent.
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2010 Chelsea Carlo Ancelotti
Image credit: Reuters
Only a few days after his 16th birthday, and already a giant of a young man, Arnesen had reportedly spent some months following the progress of Delac in the Croatian First Division with Inter Zapresic.
But the international call-up forced Chelsea's hand, even if Delac would only watch the game from the sidelines: behind Verdan Runje (who would let in five on the night); and Danijel Subasic, his country's hero in a 2018 World Cup shootout against Denmark.
At the time Petr Cech was Chelsea's unimpeachable number one.
And, in the time Delac has been on the club's books, there have been first team appearances in goal form: Hilario, Ross Turnbull, Mark Schwarzer, Thibaut Courtois, Asmir Begovic and Willy Caballero. But none from Delac.
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Thibaut Courtois
Image credit: Getty Images
Seven managers have come and gone (well, almost gone, in the case of the latest), and none gave squad space to Delac.
Initially, that was due to problems securing a work permit.
But as time moved on, and the managerial churn continued, the young Croat seemed to drop further and further from first team view.
He would embark upon a journey by loan which would take in 10 loan stints, and seven countries.
He started back on loan at Inter Zapresic in his home country; before moving on to Vitesse Arnhem (Netherlands), Dynamo Ceske Budejovice (Czech Republic), and Vitoria de Guimaraes (Portugal) – then returning back to where he started in Croatia.
He then had spells at Vojvodina (Serbia), FK Sarajevo (Bosnia), Arles-Avignon (France), Sarajevo again, and Excel Moscron (Belgium).
Though clearly not what he might have hoped for on signing for the Premier League giants almost a decade ago, it must have been an incredible way for a young lad to grow into an adult.
And, while disappointment must have surely been an emotion perennially at the back of his mind (only in the last couple of seasons has he become a regular first teamer in any of his postings), he has seemingly been the model professional throughout.
On this weekend announcing his permanent departure for AC Horsens, in the Dutch Superliga, the 25-year-old issued a statement via his Twitter and Instagram feeds which was incredibly classy about his time spent with, and away from, Chelsea.
Of those being released by Chelsea alongside him, as the calendar flipped over from June to July, was 24-year-old Brazilian fullback Wallace Oliveira dos Santos.
Usually known by only his first name, he had been signed from Fluminese in December 2012.
And, through his own series of loan absences – to Inter Milan, Vitesse, Carpi (Italy), and Gremio (Brazil) – his only real impact on Chelsea was the perennial questioning of 'Where's Wallace?' on social media, every time a wide defensive vacancy cropped up at Stamford Bridge.
Jordan Houghton, Mitchell Beeney, Isaac Christie-Davies, Cole Dasilva, Renedi Masampu and Tushaun Walters have all left the club following shorter Blues stints, without making an impact at senior level.
The final player to be handed his P45 this summer is back-up keeper Eduardo dos Reis Carvalho.
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Wallace Oliveira dos Santos in action during a Chelsea FC training session at Rajamangala Stadium on July 16, 2013 in Bangkok, Thailand.
Image credit: Getty Images
Eduardo, 35, was an experienced keeper who (unlike Delac) never expected much from his time in west London.
His only competitive appearance was as an over-age player in the Chelsea development side's Checkatrade Trophy match at MK Dons last December.
On a bitterly cold night, he barely touched the ball, as the young Blues ran out 0-4 winners.
Like all the rest, he will become a footnote in the club's history: a quiz answer for the obsessives.
But, like each in his own way, he made the club a little bit better: as hopefully Chelsea did for him in return.
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