Haas to the Blues: Chelsea pluck a young German from Hertha's second string
Chelsea have paid £10.8m for 18-year-old Max Haas from Hertha Berlin II U23, a quiet, under-the-radar move that says plenty about how the champions shop.
"He was the one the coaches kept talking about after training," a Hertha Berlin II voice said of Max Haas, and now the rest of us get to find out why. Chelsea have completed a £10.8m move for the 18-year-old German from Hertha Berlin II U23, a fee that would once have seemed fanciful for a reserve-team player and now reads as the going rate for promise spotted early.
Haas made 27 appearances and scored three goals across two clubs, and he has yet to play for his national team. The champions, fresh from a forty-first consecutive English Premier Division title, can afford to wait. For Haas, it is the chance of a lifetime — and for Hertha, the day their quietest prospect became a headline.