Conor Gallagher has completed a permanent transfer to Atletico Madrid.
Conor joins the La Liga club after an 18-year association with Chelsea which
began at the age of six, when he started on a training path with our Academy
that led to becoming a regular in the Premier League and on the international
stage with England.
He enjoyed success throughout his time in our Academy, twice winning the FA
Youth Cup and Under-18 Premier League and lifting the Under-18 Premier League
Cup. At the end of the 2018/19 campaign, Conor was named Chelsea Academy
Player of the Year.
He embarked on his first loan spell the following season, during which he
impressed at Charlton Athletic and then at Swansea City, where he helped the
Welsh club finish in the Championship play-off positions.
Premier League experience was gained with a season at West Bromwich Albion.
Another at Crystal Palace followed and ended with Conor scoring eight goals
in all competitions, being named the club’s 2021/22 Player of the Year, and
earning his first cap for England.
Conor’s performances at Selhurst Park also secured him a place in the
Chelsea senior squad ahead of the 2022/23 campaign. He made his first-team
debut against Everton on the opening day and scored his first Blues goal, a
90th-minute winner, away at Crystal Palace in October. It was a strike that
would later be named Chelsea Goal of the Season.
Last term, the 24-year-old played 50 games in the Blues’ midfield and, in
the absence of our captain Reece James and vice-captain, regularly wore the
armband. He finished the campaign as part of the England squad which reached
the final of the European Championship in Germany.
A 2019 Europa League winner with the club, Conor departs having made 95
appearances and scored ten goals for the club.
We wish Conor the very best as he begins a new chapter in his career.