Chelsea’s new signing was banned from training ground after being dubbed ‘next Aguero’ | Football | Sport
A future Chelsea signing, who is set to take on Arsenal in the Champions League tonight, has been banned from training in the past. Teenage sensation Dastan Satpaev has been a standout man for Kairat Almaty in the Champions League this season, with the Kazakh international having already become the competition’s youngest goalscorer.
His goalscoring exploits have already earned him a move to Chelsea, who have agreed a £3.3million deal to secure Satpaev’s signature. He’ll link up with the Premier League giant when he turns 18 in the summer, following a similar path to wonderkid Estevao, who joined from Brazilian outfit Palmeiras last year.
But such is the quality of Chelsea’s latest gem, Satpaev has previously been banned from training with the Kairat team for too long. Commenting on his tendency to train longer than his other team-mates, manager Rafael Urazbakhtin explained: “We had to forbid him from training.
“He was always sneaking out into the gym or back on to the pitches after sessions. We’d laugh because [we would] see him practising in the dark through the window and we had to tell him to stop, but he now understands the importance of recovery.”
Not only that, but his canny performances have also earned him comparisons to one of the Premier League’s finest-ever marksmen, Sergio Aguero. That’s according to his team-mates, who have likened Satpaev to the diminutive Argentine, who scored 260 goals in 290 appearances for Manchester City.
On his rise to prominence, Satpaev told BBC Sport: “As a child, I loved football and often played with boys older than me with my brother’s friends. My parents worried I’d get injured, as I played on sandy and rocky pitches against bigger boys. We only took breaks to drink juice. Others noticed my speed, and eventually my grandfather suggested I take trials at Kairat, where my career began.
“Kairat greatly supported me with its infrastructure, coaches and player development approach. It also helped me become mentally strong, stay focused, and embrace hard work from an early age. We performed well at international youth tournaments, which attracted an offer from a club like Chelsea.”
Whether he lives up to the nickname remains to be seen, given Chelsea fans will have to wait until August at the earliest to catch a glimpse of Satpaev.
