Red Bull Salzburg striker Karim Adeyemi has explained why he turned down the opportunity to sign for Chelsea.
Adeyemi is a highly-thought-of forward with the Austrian Bundesliga side, who are top of the country’s top-flight after 12 games.
The 18-year-old has scored two goals in all competitions this season, having mainly been used off the substitutes’ bench.
Despite his low-key season so far, Adeyemi is a bright young talent, who has previously attracted the interest of Barcelona, Liverpool and Arsenal, according to Goal.
The Germany youth international was also on the radar of Chelsea earlier in his career, having been invited to the Blues’ Cobham training ground in 2018 ahead of a potential transfer when he was a youth-team player at German side SpVgg Unterhaching..
However, Adeyemi chose Salzburg for the next stage of his development after he was released by Bayern Munich, with the Austrian side paying a reported €3million for the then 16-year-old’s signature, and he doesn’t regret the decision.
“First of all, it is important to me that I play regularly,” he told Sport 1.
“My focus is currently on the Austrian league. I am very happy that I have so much time here. I am fully focused on the task in Salzburg.
“I don’t know how the clubs work; after all, I don’t know the people responsible. But I would choose the club where I feel most comfortable.
“It’s not that difficult to stay on the ground. I haven’t achieved anything yet, even though I’m now playing in the first division in Austria.
“But I find it – in quotation marks – quite normal that I do not answer. My parents and family support me a lot in this. My old Unterhaching club taught me that too.
“But even at Salzburg we players are kept on the ground. There is also no reason why I should rise above other people. All people are equal.”
Salzburg has been a happy breeding ground for young strikers in recent years, with Liverpool’s Sadio Mane and Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland beginning their careers at the Austrian club.
Hungarian midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai also rose to prominence with the club before choosing to join sister club RB Leipzig this month instead of Arsenal.
Adeyemi is looking to follow in those players’ footsteps, having made the brave decision to reject Chelsea.
“A move to Chelsea would not have been a sensible step at the time,” he told Goal in April last year. “Of course I am happy when such clubs signal interest, but I just wanted to play football.”
