{"id":859509,"date":"2025-07-02T07:12:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T12:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/02\/former-chelsea-wonderkid-musonda-retires-at-28\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T07:12:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T12:12:09","slug":"former-chelsea-wonderkid-musonda-retires-at-28","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/02\/former-chelsea-wonderkid-musonda-retires-at-28\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Chelsea wonderkid Musonda retires at 28"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Football <\/p>\n<section id=\"article-feed\" data-behavior=\"author_overlay article_header_news_feed_item_meta article_legal_footer\">\n<article data-id=\"45627630\" data-behavior=\"story_scroll story_progress\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/story\/_\/id\/45627630\/former-chelsea-wonderkid-retires-28\">\n<div>\n<header><\/header>\n<figure data-video=\"watch,640,360,45621832\" data-cerebro-id=\"68630b012c1a6662c3129771\" data-title=\"Ogden: No logic behind Chelsea signing Jo\u00e3o Pedro\" data-source=\"espn\">\n<div><picture><source  media=\"(min-width: 376px)\"><source  media=\"(max-width: 375px)\"><\/picture>\n<p><span data-id=\"45621832\">play<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p><span>Ogden: No logic behind Chelsea signing Jo\u00e3o Pedro (1:43)<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Mark Ogden reacts to Chelsea&#8217;s proposed move for Brighton&#8217;s Jo\u00e3o Pedro. (1:43)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>ESPN<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>Jul 1, 2025, 05:12 AM ET<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Former <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/football\/team\/_\/id\/363\/chelsea\" target=\"_blank\">Chelsea<\/a> wonderkid <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/219780\/charly-musonda\">Charly Musonda<\/a> has retired at the age of just 28.<\/p>\n<p>Musonda, who represented <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/football\/team\/_\/id\/459\/belgium\" target=\"_blank\">Belgium<\/a> from Under-15 to Under-21 level, most recently played for Cypriot club Anorthosis from 2023 to 2024.<\/p>\n<p>He joined the Chelsea academy from Belgian side <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/football\/team\/_\/id\/441\/anderlecht\" target=\"_blank\">Anderlecht<\/a> in 2012 and was tipped for big things, but despite being contracted to Chelsea for 10 years, he made just seven appearances in all competitions.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0l9MPWNCF_c\" target=\"_blank\">Rising Ballers<\/a> podcast, Musonda, who went on loan to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/football\/team\/_\/id\/244\" target=\"_blank\">Real Betis<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/football\/team\/_\/id\/154\/vitesse\">Vitesse<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/football\/team\/_\/id\/256\" target=\"_blank\">Celtic<\/a> while at Chelsea, said: &#8220;I&#8217;ve got a big announcement today. It&#8217;s not easy but it&#8217;s something I&#8217;ve been thinking about for a long time.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;After reflecting on my experiences and who I am, I&#8217;ve realised I want to live with purpose to inspire and motivate others.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The 28-year-old left Chelsea permanently in 2022, signing for then Spanish second division side <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/football\/team\/_\/id\/1538\/levante\" target=\"_blank\">Levante<\/a> before moving to Cyprus a year later.<\/p>\n<p>Having left London though, Musonda struggled mentally after working to recover from injury.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The exit killed me, it killed me mentally, it was the worst thing,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>Musonda was training with the reserves, having recovered from a serious knee injury that kept him out for two years, when he had a chance meeting with then Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel in a car park.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was my first time meeting him, he said, &#8220;I&#8217;m looking forward to seeing you back and I said, &#8220;Don&#8217;t worry, I&#8217;ll be back for preseason.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Because in my mind, it was always preseason and I&#8217;d be back with the first team and we&#8217;d see from there, so I came back for pre-season and that&#8217;s where things got tricky &#8212; that was the end of my time at Chelsea.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/story\/_\/id\/45627630\/former-chelsea-wonderkid-retires-28\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a> ESPN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>play Ogden: No logic behind Chelsea signing Jo\u00e3o Pedro (1:43) Mark Ogden reacts to Chelsea&#8217;s proposed move for Brighton&#8217;s Jo\u00e3o Pedro. (1:43) ESPN Jul 1, 2025, 05:12 AM ET Former Chelsea wonderkid Charly Musonda has retired at the age of just 28. Musonda, who represented Belgium from Under-15 to Under-21 level, most recently played for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":859510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2012,3790,148],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-859509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chelsea","8":"category-football","9":"category-former"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=859509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}