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Chelsea are keeping tabs on Felipe Morais, and the Cruzeiro teenager is continuing to justify why the Blues are moving so early.<\/strong><\/p>\n Chelsea\u2019s interest in the 17-year-old first emerged during last year\u2019s U17 World Cup. Later, we covererd that the Premier League side had even tested Cruzeiro\u2019s resolve with a \u20ac10m (\u00a38.6m) offer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The Brazilian club quickly made their position clear. Eventually, they tied the midfielder down to a new contract<\/strong> until 2029 with a \u20ac100m (\u00a386m) release clause for overseas clubs.<\/p>\n Nothing has changed on that front for now. What has changed is Felipe Morais\u2019 progress.<\/p>\n The attacking midfielder has now taken another significant step in his development by making his senior debut for Cruzeiro. Better still for those already watching him, he marked the occasion with his first professional goal in a friendly victory over Defensor.<\/p>\n It is another timely reminder of why Chelsea identified him as one of Brazil\u2019s standout prospects so early.<\/p>\n Felipe Morais has steadily climbed through Cruzeiro\u2019s academy since joining the club in 2017. As a result, he is earning a reputation as one of their brightest prospects.<\/p>\n His performances for Brazil at the U17 World Cup further accelerated that rise. He featured in seven of eight matches and scored twice, attracting attention from Chelsea, Atl\u00e9tico Madrid and other European clubs.<\/p>\n Now, he has begun making the transition into senior football.<\/p>\n Operating in the role usually occupied by Matheus Pereira during the second half against Defensor, the teenager showed confidence on the ball. Then, he capped his display with a well-struck effort from outside the penalty area.<\/p>\n For Chelsea\u2019s recruitment staff, it is exactly the type of progression they would have hoped to see after establishing an interest months ago.<\/p>\n Despite growing attention from Europe, Felipe Morais insists his focus remains firmly on Cruzeiro.<\/p>\n Speaking after his senior debut, the midfielder was asked about transfer speculation and left those matters to his representatives.<\/p>\n \u201cThat situation is for the people at my agency. My focus is completely here at Cruzeiro, at this moment, which is a very happy one for me and my family. I can only thank everyone who has been part of this process.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Cruzeiro\u2019s contract renewal already demonstrated their determination to keep hold of one of the club\u2019s biggest academy talents.<\/p>\n Chelsea, meanwhile, have already shown they are prepared to move early for the youngster. As Felipe Morais continues to tick off milestones in his career, there are increasing signs their initial assessment was well founded.<\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Chelsea are keeping tabs on Felipe Morais, and the Cruzeiro teenager is continuing to justify…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Felipe Morais keeps progressing<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Chelsea interest remains background noise<\/strong><\/h2>\n