Chelsea owner Todd Boehly is set to welcome another vital piece to the new regime at Stamford Bridge after the Blues have been given the green light to add former RB Leipzig director Christopher Vivell to the evolving recruitment team in the English capital.
Per reports from CBS Sports’ Ben Jacobs, the 36-year-old has now cleared UK work permit regulations and will start as soon as possible after the conclusion of a ‘cooling period’ in the wake of his sacking in Saxony.
Christopher Vivell will join Chelsea as technical director now clearance to work in the UK has come through, as first reported by @Matt_Law_DT. #CFC‘s hope has always been Vivell can start immediately since he was sacked from Leipzig. But his contract did have a ‘cooling’ period.
— Ben Jacobs (@JacobsBen) December 15, 2022
Little mind should be given to the details surrounding Vivell’s Leipzig departure, which instead of it being down to poor performance, reportedly was due to differences that were irreconcilable, which caused the Bundesliga outfit to terminate his contract.
Vivell first cut his teeth in Sinsheim with TSG 1899 Hoffenheim as a young video analyst, then a match analyst, and then finally as a scout in the senior setup across a five-year spell that saw him rapidly rise in the recruitment ranks.
The Karlsruhe native was then brought into the Red Bull fold with RB Salzburg in 2015 as head of scouting and formed a close working relationship with former Chelsea technical director target Christopher Freund, where the pair presided over heralded business for youngsters the likes of Erling Haaland, Karim Adeyemi, and Patson Daka among others.
His record in Salzburg earned him a promotion up the RB ladder that would land him in Leipzig in 20202 where his recruitment work continued to the tune of moves for highly-touted Croatian centerback Joško Gvardiol (a Chelsea transfer target), André Silva, David Raum, Angeliño, Dominik Szoboszlai, Mohamed Simakan, Caden Clark, and Xaver Schlager.
His arrival at Stamford Bridge could very well usher in a new direction for the club in transfer dealings, with greater emphasis placed on younger talent that is ready to make the jump to first-team duties at a big club in England rather than only focus on young players to develop, giving the club longevity in terms of squad building in a move that could be one of the most important enacted by the club in recent memory.
